Parallel
by dozygirl
Summary: When Dawn is kidnapped and taken through a portal to a parallel world Buffy has no choice but to follow. What will she do in a world where Glory still lives and vampires run rampant? BtVS/Sliders Xover.
1. The Slide

**Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy**** the Vampire Slayer**** or Sliders. If I did I would probably make Jerry O'Connell walk around without a shirt more often.**

Chapter 1.

Buffy Summers stepped out onto the roof of the hotel and breathed in the cool air. Finally, peace and quiet.

She gazed out over the twilit city of Los Angeles, a sad look in her eyes. This had been _his_ city. He'd watched over it like a guardian angel while people went about their daily lives, never knowing the danger they faced each time they stepped out their front doors. She could relate. She'd spent seven years doing exactly the same thing in Sunnydale and now she and her girls protected the whole world.

Nearly all the people were gone now. Gone, or dead. The houses sat dark and silent, cars were overturned, windows smashed, bodies lay in the streets they hadn't cleared yet. Another city that had got in the way of the war between good and evil. At least this one hadn't sunk into a crater.

According to the news LA had been beset with an outbreak of a particular strain of flu that caused hallucinations. How else could the general populace explain the things that had happened here? Buffy knew better.

She and Dawn had just moved to Rome when she first became aware that something was seriously wrong here. Local Slayers, activated by Willow's spell, had reported that the evil law firm – was there such a thing as non-evil lawyers? – Wolfram and Hart, had been taken over by some old friends: Angel and his detective agency. She'd wanted to believe that the man she'd once loved with all her soul had done it for a reason, but the more the situation was investigated, the more disturbing information was turned up.

One of Angel's original crew, a girl named Winifred Burkle, had been used as a host for an ancient demon, one of the true old ones, and all evidence suggested it was someone from inside the company that had made it possible. 'Lawyers' continued to support questionable clients and the operatives sometimes used obscene techniques to protect those usually guilty clients. He'd hired _Harmony_ as his secretary. Buffy hadn't been able to deny the information was disturbing and when forced to make a decision had ruled that they could no longer trust Angel.

It was almost a year after the collapse of Sunnydale that Buffy received a report that said Angel was turning dark. She had ignored the issue until then, hoping that he would come around. She may not have been involved with him anymore, but she still felt a lot for him. She'd even let it pass when she heard that he had been in Rome with one of his colleagues, for all intents and purposes spying on her in her new home, during that brief lapse of judgement that had been her relationship with the Immortal.

Now _that_ had been an experience. He'd breezed into her life, reminding her in some ways of her first love and she'd enjoyed recapturing that feeling of heady joy she'd felt back then. It wasn't until Dawn hit her over the head and pointed out the similarities that Buffy realised she didn't love the Immortal. It had all been about Angel.

And then Lorne was there, knocking on her door like there was no tomorrow. He'd been scared, anxious for the friends he left behind and terrified for the millions of people who would get caught in the crossfire. He'd told her everything. How they'd taken charge of the firm in order to change it from the inside. There had been so many good intentions but it had all gone so wrong. They'd discovered too late that the Senior Partners wouldn't be swayed and the evil was entrenched so deeply in their new employees that it could never be eradicated. It was then that Angel had become entangled with the Order of the Black Thorn.

Lorne had explained the Sanshu prophecy and told her how Angel had signed away any possibility of it coming true. Buffy had almost wept at his selflessness. The prophecy said that he would become human, they could have been together at last, but Angel had given all that up in order to save lives.

Lorne had done his part in Angel's plan before leaving LA and tracking her down. His conscience hadn't allowed him to stay any longer and Buffy was surprised he'd done as much as he had considering his strong feelings. He hadn't been able to forget the danger they were in, though, or the peril of the people of LA. Five against an army that could number in thousands. Buffy's own experience told her that it wasn't impossible, hadn't she herself led an army of thirty girls into the Hellmouth to face an army of _ten_ thousand uber-vamps and they had won that one. She'd been tempted to stay out of it, it was Angel's mess, let him clear it up, but in the end she couldn't do it. She'd sent orders for every girl in range to get to LA as soon as possible and had boarded the next plane to the States along with Willow and a handful of Italian Slayers.

They'd arrived too late to save Angel and his team. Willow had identified the bodies of Gunn and a much altered Fred, located near the corpse of a huge dragon, though there had been no sign of Wesley. Angel and his other, unknown companion were also missing. Angel had most likely exploded into a pile of ash upon his death.

Buffy wiped a stray tear from her cheek. She and Angel had parted ways many years ago, but somehow she'd always known they'd be together once more. Now that could never be.

The general population of LA had fled the town between the time that the demons attacked and the Slayers arrived. Buffy could understand why. LA had become almost as much of a supernatural hotspot as Sunnydale had been in its day, what with eclipses that lasted for weeks, rains of fire and demon attacks. The Slayers had missed the fight, but this was the kind of clean up that only they could do. Many of the demons had scattered, some staying here others leaving to find a new hunting ground. They would be tracked down by Slayers in other cities.

Part of Buffy was tempted to let the demons have what was left of the city, but she knew that eventually people would come back to rebuild and when that time came she would make sure they didn't come just to be 'happy meals on legs.'

"Buffy?"

Buffy turned to see a redhead walk out onto the roof.

"Can I intrude on your quiet time?"

Buffy nodded.

Willow Rosenberg sighed. "It's all such a mess out there," she said. "And it's utter chaos _in there_. I don't know how you deal with it."

Buffy allowed a tiny smile to lift her lips. "I just take one thing at a time."

Willow leaned on the low wall and took a good long look at her old friend. "How are you coping?"

Buffy shrugged. "You know how it is."

"Come on, Buffy," Willow scolded her. "I'm not one of your girls, I'm Willow. I know how much Angel meant to you. You can tell me that you're hurting."

"I just hate that he died thinking that I didn't care about him anymore." There, she'd said it.

Willow laid an arm about Buffy's slender shoulders. "He knew you were conflicted, that he was doing something questionable and that you couldn't trust him with the lives of all those Slayers. He would have understood and known that whatever happened, you would still care. He loved you so much."

"And I loved him." The two girls looked out across the city, silent for a time, both thinking about the events that had led them here.

"Can you believe it's been a year since Sunnydale?" Willow asked suddenly.

"I still have trouble believing it's all over," Buffy told her. "Sometimes I wake up at night thinking that I've gotta figure out how to stop the First and protect all those girls and then I remember..."

"A year ago we changed the world," Willow finished. "So many people would be dead if it weren't for what we did."

"And for what Angel did," Buffy looked to her friend. "How could I have thought he would ever do anything to hurt anyone?"

"We all did," Willow tried to reassure her. "Angel didn't exactly make an effort to tell you what was going on."

"But I knew him better than anyone," Buffy lamented. "I should have trusted him to do the right thing. I didn't. I..."

"What?" Willow followed Buffy's gaze out into the city and saw the same flickering blue light that had distracted Buffy. "What _is_ that?"

"I don't know," Buffy replied her eyes locked on the distant spot. "I'm gonna check it out."

"Take some of the girls with you," Willow suggested.

"No time," Buffy said. "Send someone after me if you want, but I'm going now."

Buffy vaulted over the wall and landed on the roof of the next building over. From there she dropped down onto the road and took off in the direction of the light.

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A swirling blue vortex opened in the middle of an empty street. This would have been surprising enough had there been anyone there to witness it, but then a woman's screams filled the air and a small body was spat out of the vortex.

Wade was grateful for the soft landing – well softer than normal – as she half turned and sat up to see two more figures fly from the vortex. The first, Professor Arturo, landed a few feet away from her and struggled to rise before the second, Rembrandt Brown, landed directly on top of him.

Wade grinned. It was like Remmy aimed for the Professor, not that she could blame him. Some of these landings were rough and the Professor made for a good cushion.

A final figure exited the vortex and would have remained upright were it not for the two men on the ground. Wade laughed out loud as Quinn Mallory tripped over her other two companions and landed directly across Remmy's back.

"Good landing, you guys," Wade said sympathetically from her spot on the ground.

"Yes, well, if Mr Brown would watch where he was going it wouldn't happen," the Professor said irritably as he extricated himself from the bottom of the pile. "Next time, you go through first and then maybe _I'll _land on _you_."

"Now, now, no need to get testy, Professor," Rembrandt chuckled. "It was an accident."

"Looks like you didn't land so well yourself," Quinn said looking behind Wade. "Did you knock someone over?"

His comment reminded Wade of her soft landing and she half turned to see what it was that had broken her fall.

"Oh God," she said and backed away. "Guys!"

Quinn was at her side in an instant. He crouched next to the still body and turned it over. "He's dead."

"Did I kill him when I landed on him?" Wade asked desperately. Maybe on this world the people were really fragile.

"I don't think so." Wade could hear the sick tone in his voice. "This guy's been dead for a while."

"What, they just left him there?" Rembrandt said, coming up and laying a comforting hand on Wade's shoulder.

"He's not the only one." Wade looked up to see the Professor staring up the street to where another body lay, as still as the first.

"What happened here?" Quinn asked curiously. "War?"

"I don't think so," the Professor said. "Look at the houses. It looks as if this place has been abandoned. Perhaps that poor fellow was merely left behind."

"Why would they abandon a city?" Wade asked.

"Any number of reasons," Quinn told her. "Earthquakes, maybe, but the structure of the buildings is too stable for that. Maybe a pestilence or something like that."

"That would explain this guy," Rembrandt said. He'd wandered over to the other body and turned it over with one foot. "Come and look at this."

The other three Sliders hurried over to their friend. Wade covered her mouth with one hand and turned away. She felt sick. The man's face was covered in red blisters the size of her thumbnails and judging by his hands and neck his whole body looked like that.

"Don't touch it," the Professor warned.

"I wasn't going to," Quinn replied. "It doesn't look like this was caused by a disease."

"What is it then?" Remmy demanded.

"I don't know, Crying Man. Maybe it's a sub species that evolved on this Earth. It looks like his skin has been boiled and this looks like some kind of tribal design," Quinn said, pointing at a triangular shaped mark painted on the man's forehead.

"I think it's safe to say we aren't home," the Professor said. "Let's get inside until the Slide."

"How long have we got?" Wade asked. She just wanted to get far away from this world and its freaky inhabitants if that was what they looked like.

"About an hour," Quinn said checking the timer. "Not long. Maybe we can find a newspaper or something to give us a clue about what happened here."

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Dawn Summers always felt anxious when the Slayers went out. She worried that they wouldn't all come back. True, they were all super powered girls and well trained, but they were up against demons that were as strong as they were.

Buffy hadn't been happy when Dawn had shown up here in LA two days after the battle, but there was no way she was going to leave. The girls needed someone here who could look up demons and research spells. Who else was going to do it? Buffy? Not likely. Few of their Watchers were as well versed in demon lore as Dawn was and this was going to be a tricky job. They needed the best and Buffy needed _her_.

Buffy had been under a great deal of stress what with all the newbie Slayers looking at her as if she were the second coming and the expectations of being the Slayer General. Add to that Angel's apparent betrayal and subsequent death and Buffy seriously needed a vacation. Dawn thanked any deities who happened to be listening that her sister still didn't know that the fifth member of Angel's group had been Spike. It was no surprise that Buffy had taken to spending hours alone, moping as far as Dawn could tell and generally regretting not believing in Angel and not being there for him at the end.

When Willow had come down from the roof where she and Buffy had been having a serious talk, with a perplexed expression on her face Dawn was all ready to go and make an attempt to get through to the stubborn one herself. On hearing what the wicca had to say Dawn had been the one who immediately sent out a squad of Slayers.

Why did Buffy always think she had to do everything alone? There were fifty Slayers staying in this very hotel, all willing to follow their leader into the depths of Hell – and not for the first time either – but Buffy had seemingly forgotten that in her haste to investigate. Dawn knew why. Buffy had been the Chosen _One_. She'd gotten used to having no back up besides what little her friends could provide and now that she _did_ have hundreds of Slayers the world over, ready to heed her call, she still acted alone. Not for the first time Dawn cursed Merrick, the man who had taught Buffy that 'she _alone_ could stand against the vampires, demons and the forces of darkness.'

Willow had gone back to the roof. Whatever the light had been it had disappeared shortly after they had first seen it. From the roof Willow would see if any more appeared and could use magic to contact Buffy quickly. Three other Slayers had gone with her so that Willow wouldn't have to look in every direction at once. Besides the ten-girl squad that had gone after Buffy another three squads were out on regular patrol, leaving only seven Slayers in the building. That on its own was worrying. It would be a perfect time for something to attack their headquarters and catch them off guard.

As if someone had been reading her thoughts the door crashed inwards and a handful of demons stalked in.

One of the Slayers, an Australian girl named Sarah, swore under her breath even as she leapt to her feet and ran to the weapons closet. The other girls dropped into familiar fighting stances, prepared for battle.

Dawn ran to help Sarah. The girls would need weapons more than they would need her help, Sunnydale survivor or not.

"Go," Sarah ordered, forgetting that Dawn was the Watcher here. "Tell Willow what's happening and get the others down here."

Dawn nodded and obeyed even as she heard the Slayers engage in battle behind her, regretting that she didn't have the same telepathic connection with Willow that the rest of the Scoobies shared. She made it to the stairs and started up as quickly as she could, her heart pounding in her chest. If only Buffy were here.

Dawn stopped abruptly. There was a demon standing above her on the stairs, a very familiar looking demon. "You – you worked for Glory," she said, a sudden urgent fear hitting her.

The demon tilted its head to one side. "You remember. That is good. After all, it is because of you that the Great Glorificus was killed."

"No," Dawn said desperately. "I didn't. It was Buffy."

"She may have been the one to strike our Lady, but it was because of you that she did."

"So this is revenge?" Dawn just had to keep him talking. Eventually Willow would hear the commotion from the fight and one of the Slayers would take him out from behind. As she was she was helpless. No weapons and not enough skill in a fight to really do any damage without one, but if it came to it she would go down swinging.

"No, child. This is all about you." The demon started walking down the stairs towards her and Dawn backed up.

"What do you mean? Dreg isn't it?"

"The fall of our Goddess was prophesised long ago," the demon told her. "We worshipped her anyway, because we knew her greatness was unparalleled on this world and we knew that she would lead us to our true Goddess."

"And who is that?" Dawn took another few steps back.

"Glorificus."

Dawn stopped. "She's dead."

"In this reality, yes, but there are others and the prophecy gave explicit details. It told us the time and the place and what we need to get there and it told us how to get what we needed and how to best serve our lady." The demon lunged at her.

Dawn turned and fled down the stairs, but was brought up short when another demon stepped in front of her. She was surrounded. It was fight or surrender and if being the sister of the Slayer had taught her anything it was that you _never _surrender.

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"Anything in the paper, Q-ball?"

Quinn looked up to see Rembrandt peering over his shoulder. "Not really, unless you're interested in a law firm defending the governor from some scandal or other. This paper's a week old. There's nothing in there about a pestilence or natural disaster or anything. As far as I can tell there was no reason for everyone to just get up and go."

"No matter," Professor Arturo said. "We're leaving this world in less than twenty minutes anyway. I very much doubt there's anything we could discover in that time."

"It's eerie," Wade said with a shudder. "Not a living soul in sight. I can't help but wonder what happened here."

"I did glean one bit of information," Quinn said, folding up the paper. "We're back in LA."

"Ah, man," Rembrandt complained. "Even since Logan St-Claire messed with the timer we've been landing all over the place."

"Nothing I can do" Quinn said regretfully. "Having Logan's geographic spectral stabiliser means that we can land anywhere between here and San Francisco."

"Can't you replace it?" Wade asked hopefully.

"You know, it just so happens that I have a spare in my pocket," Quinn said sarcastically.

"That's enough," the Professor said reproachfully. "The last thing we need is to start fighting amongst ourselves."

The Sliders had taken refuge in one of the empty houses, not wanting to start wandering about with such a small amount of time before the next window. They'd not even tried to turn on the lights just in case the electricity was still on. They'd had enough experience with sliding to know that even if they didn't see anything out there it didn't mean they were alone. The last thing they wanted was to be attacked by something that looked like the dead man outside.

"How do you think they died?" Wade asked. She'd been dwelling on it ever since they'd found the two men.

"The first man, the human looking one, didn't have a mark on him that I could see," Quinn said. He'd looked incredibly pale though as if all the blood were drained from his body but he wasn't going to say that in front of Wade unless he had to.

"What about the other guy," Remmy asked. "That was freaky looking."

"As Quinn suggested, he may be one of another species that evolved here on this Earth, like the Kro-Maggs" the Professor explained. "Maybe he evolved in a desert and that skin provides some protection against the sun."

"Or he could even be completely alien," Quinn suggested. "Maybe on this world they made contact with alien life."

"Fifteen minutes 'til the slide," Rembrandt pointed out. "We'll never know for certain."

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Buffy huffed quietly to herself as she led the way back to the hotel. Whatever had caused that blue light was long gone now. She could only hope it wasn't dangerous.

True to her word Willow had sent a squad of Slayers after her, ten girls who had yet to learn that stealth was a key skill for a Slayer. With the amount of noise they'd made when they came after her it was no wonder that whatever had caused the light had scarpered.

Buffy yanked open the front door feeling a wave of irritation that she knew she could never show the girls. Morale was important in a place like this, if they got down there was no way to lighten the mood. Fortunately beating things up was a great way to release tension if you were a Slayer.

Buffy stared at the sight that met her. Demon bodies were strewn about the room haphazardly and a lot of the furniture was overturned or broken. Most worrying of all was Willow and six mini Slayers huddled together.

"Will?"

Willow turned at the sound of Buffy's voice and Buffy was startled to see tears in her eyes. "It's Min," she said quietly. "She's dead."

Buffy nodded. She would deal with that later, right now she needed to work out what happened here.

"They must have been watching us," Sarah, one of the girls said sadly. "They attacked right after you left."

Buffy glanced around at the mess. "Where's Dawn?"

Willow closed her eyes in concentration. "She's not in the hotel."

Buffy stared at her in consternation. "Dammit! I _hate_ Tuesdays! OK, Willow, use magic to find out where she is and let me know, Sarah, you're coming with me, bring the scythe, the rest of you stay here just in case there are more. We're vulnerable here and we don't want to have to relocate. From now on there must be two squads here at _all times_."

"OK, Buffy," Willow said. "You get out there, I'll contact you as soon as I know anything."

Buffy nodded and as soon as Sarah returned and handed her the scythe the two Slayers went out into the night.

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With five minutes to go until the slide, the group left their shelter and headed to a nearby park. Professor Arturo insisted that by sliding from a nice grassy area they were more likely to land somewhere with lots of soft grass. The other three, knowing how cantankerous the man could get, went along with it, more to keep him quiet than anything else.

"It's so weird," Wade said to Quinn. "It's hard to believe this is LA, it's just too quiet."

"I wish we knew what happened," Quinn said distantly. "I always worry about taking something with us."

"You said yourself it didn't look like that guy was infected with anything," Wade pointed out.

"Hmm," Quinn agreed in a non-committal way.

The two walked in silence, following Rembrandt and the Professor.

"Ah, this looks like a good spot," the Professor said at last. "I do detest landing on concrete."

"We know," Rembrandt said with a grin. "You've told us many times."

"Today you will go first, Mr Brown," Arturo said, ignoring Rembrandt's comment. "See how you like it when _I _land on _you_."

Quinn and Wade shared an amused look. Those two were always winding one another up.

"We've got a couple of minutes," Quinn said, checking the timer.

"Can you hear something?" Wade asked suddenly.

Quinn strained his ears before glancing at Wade. He couldn't hear anything.

"The wind in the trees, Miss Wells," Arturo suggested.

"Maybe," Wade said doubtfully.

"What's that?" Rembrandt said, pointing into the tree-line.

Three figures stepped out from between the trees. Two of them unnaturally wrinkled skin that was certainly not human. Coupled with their unkempt hair and unnaturally large and pointed noses they looked almost as scary as the dead man they had seen on the street. Between them, her wrists held tightly by the two 'men' was a young girl around eighteen years old. She was a pretty girl with huge eyes and dark hair that came to her waist and she looked like she couldn't decide if she should be scared or angry.

"People," Wade gasped. "This place isn't deserted after all."

"Hey!" Quinn shouted, not liking how the two males were holding the girl. "What's going on?"

"This is the time and place," one of the men said to the other. "Where is the gateway?"

"Have faith," the second one said. "We have the key." He shook the girl's arm violently, causing her to stumble.

Quinn moved forward to try and pull the girl away, but the Professor's hand caught his elbow. "We don't have time."

"What is this? Some kind of virgin sacrifice?" Rembrandt said in disgust.

"Hey! What are you implying?" the girl demanded. Apparently she wasn't as helpless as she looked.

"Only you can get offended at a time like this."

Quinn turned to his left to see two women approach. The older of the two, a petite blonde who seemed to be in her early twenties, was carrying an axe-like weapon as if she knew how to use it. The second, a younger girl of about sixteen wielded a sword. What was going on here?

"Buffy!" the hostage exclaimed. "I didn't mean to get kidnapped, honestly."

"You never do," the blonde answered. She peered at the two holding the girl. "Hey, aren't they-"

"Glory's minions," the first girl answered.

"Buffy," the third girl said quietly in an Australian accent. "What do you want me to do?" Clearly the blonde, Buffy, was in charge.

"Sit tight," Buffy answered. Her gaze shifted to the smaller of the two men. "You know Glory's dead right? Taking Dawn won't bring her back."

"Your interference will accomplish nothing," the man replied.

"Which is what I'm trying to say," Buffy said patiently. "Why don't you just let her go?"

The timer in Quinn's hand beeped. "Time to go," he said to his friends.

"Who are you?" the youngest girl asked as if she had only just noticed them.

"Human," Buffy grunted at her. "Ignore them."

"We'll be out of your hair in just a moment," Rembrandt said as Quinn pointed the timer between the two sides.

The vortex formed in the air, causing the youngest girl to gasp.

"It was you!" Buffy said in surprise.

Quinn was about to wave the others to slide when one of the men stepped between them and the vortex, pulling the girl Buffy had called Dawn with him. He was chanting something under his breath.

The other man joined him and he too was chanting. He grabbed Dawn's free hand and slashed it with one of his claw-like nails.

"What are they doing?" Wade said fearfully.

"Get away from there." Quinn and Arturo stepped towards the men to push them away from their ride out of here.

The second man flicked his claw with the blood still clinging to it at the vortex.

The ground seemed to shake and Quinn fell to his knees. "What have you done?" he yelled, staring at the vortex in dismay for it was no longer a flickering blue, but a pulsating emerald green.

Without a backward glace the two men pulled the struggling girl into the vortex.

Buffy was there, pulling Quinn to his feet. "What is that thing? Where have they taken her?" Her hair was whipping about her face in the wind created by the vortex.

"It leads to parallel worlds," Quinn yelled over the turbulent wind.

"Is it safe?" Wade called.

"We have to risk it," Quinn said desperately. "If we don't we're stuck here for twenty nine years."

The Professor stood up. "Mr Brown, you first."

"Oh, great," Rembrandt complained. "For all I know that thing leads directly to Hell itself." He took a running leap into the vortex and disappeared.

"Here goes," Wade said and followed Remmy. Arturo was right behind her.

"I'm coming too," Buffy said.

"Are you sure?" Quinn knew they didn't have long before the vortex closed, but he had to let her know the risks. "We don't know what they did. It could kill us all. Even if it doesn't we have no way of getting you back."

"I don't care," Buffy said. She threw her weapon to her companion who caught it deftly.

"Maybe I should come too," she said.

"No!" Buffy called over the wind. "You need to tell Willow what happened. Tell her that I'm counting on her to find a way to get us home."

"If you're coming we need to go _now_," Quinn yelled. It was a matter of seconds before the vortex closed. He held out a hand to her expecting her to be nervous, but her hand in his was rock steady. "Go!" Together they ran to the vortex and jumped.

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A/N: OK, first chapter of a new story so I don't have much to say yet, except please review and let me know what you think. I've already written up to chapter four so hopefully updates will be quite fast, but I'm hoping to stay a bit ahead so no promises. I'll update chapter two when I've finished chapter five. With the speed I'm writing lately it shouldn't take too long.

Nat.


	2. The New World

Chapter 2.

Buffy couldn't stop the scream that left her lips as she went tumbling through the void. She was surrounded by green and her ears were filled with the sound of her screams mingling with those of the man that had leapt through the portal with her. Incredibly they were still holding hands even though they were tumbling through space and being pulled in every direction.

And then it was over and they were being spat out onto a road in the middle of some unnamed town. Buffy didn't think they were in LA anymore, but it was impossible to tell.

She felt the man next to her rise and pull her up with him. She looked around desperately for Dawn and the two demons that had taken her, but there was no one around. The street was completely deserted.

"Was it me, or was the trip a little bumpier than normal?" a handsome black man said, rotating one shoulder as if to relieve the pressure.

"What's she doing here?" the only female of the group asked. She was pretty, with an elfin face and short cropped hair dyed to a red reminiscent of Willow.

"She insisted on coming too." Buffy looked at the man that had only just let go of her hand. He was tall, very tall and good looking with slightly shaggy hair that made her fingers itch to run them through it. She shook her head. What was she doing? She was supposed to be mourning Angel, not ogling some hot guy who travels through portals of all things.

"Did you see which way they went?" Buffy demanded, suddenly remembering why she was there.

"No, I'm sorry, girl," the black man said gently. "They'd already gone by the time we came through."

Buffy nodded. "Thanks," she said to no one in particular. She'd have to rely on her Slayer abilities to find them, which could prove almost impossible if this town ha a high demon population. With a nod towards the cute one she marched off in a random direction.

"Wait." Her handsome new friend ran in front of her, cutting her off. "It's not a good idea for you to go wandering off. This isn't your world, anything could be out there. We'll help you find her, I promise."

Buffy frowned. "You said 'parallel worlds,'" she remembered. "Like on TV, with alternate versions of us?"

"Sometimes." It was the largest of the three men speaking. He looked like a respectable man who had recently let himself go, like if Giles had stopped cutting his hair and shaving as frequently. "You could very well have a double here, as could your friend. You may recognise people that you haven't seen in years, though they will not necessarily know you. It is also true that you may never have been born on this world."

"This is not good," Buffy said quietly to herself. The demons that took Dawn were once Glory's minions. Maybe there was a double of Glory here, if so Dawn was in grave danger, but not of the urgent variety. Glory could only use the key at a specific time and place.

"I'm Wade," the girl said brightly, again reminding Buffy of Willow with her innocent smile.

"Buffy Summers," Buffy said shortly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Summers," the large man said. "I am Professor Maximilian Arturo." His accent was British, another reminder of Giles.

"We just call him the Professor," the black man said. "I'm Rembrandt Brown."

"Quinn Mallory," his hotness told her, holding out one hand.

Buffy shook it. She let her gaze fall on his arms for a moment and almost sighed out loud. She'd always had a weakness for a man's arms and those were some seriously nice ones.

"So, is there a procedure?" Buffy said. She didn't want to be side tracked right now. "I have to find her."

"Not to worry, my dear," the Professor said comfortingly. "We will make every effort to find your friend."

"Sister," Buffy corrected. "She's my younger sister. Dawn. Complete brat most of the time, but I'm responsible for her."

"I know what that's like," Wade said. "I have an older sister myself."

Buffy wasn't sure exactly when it happened, but they'd started walking. She supposed it didn't much matter which way they went. Dawn and the two demons could have gone any way from here, as long as they were moving Buffy could use her senses to check out the surrounding areas. So far there was nothing supernatural about.

"So where do you think we are?" Wade asked. "It seems just as deserted as the last world."

It surprised Buffy to realise they were talking about _her_ world.

"Not quite," Quinn said. He was walking at Buffy's side, his gaze shifting from the new world around them to their new companion. "I see lights."

"It appears this town has a curfew," Arturo said. "Here we are in the main street of a town and no one is about after dark."

Buffy's eyes widened as the possibilities struck her. There was at least one reason she could think of that no humans would be out after dark.

"We should probably get inside," Rembrandt said. "If this curfew is mandatory we might get arrested or something."

"What about Dawn?" Buffy demanded.

"We'll do everything we can, girl," Rembrandt assured her. "But we won't do her any good if we get ourselves locked up."

Buffy had to admit he had a point and if she was right about why no one was on the streets then these people would just be lambs for the slaughter without her. "What do you suggest?"

"We can't just walk up to a hotel," Quinn said seriously. "The manager might turn us in for breaking curfew. We should find somewhere to lay low for a while."

"How long 'til we Slide?" Rembrandt asked Quinn.

Quinn pulled a black object from inside his coat and glanced at it. "Eight and a half days."

"Then what?" Buffy wondered aloud. Eight days might be enough time to find Dawn, but Quinn had said there was no way to get them back home. She assumed Sliding was what they called jumping throuh that portal.

"You and your sister have a choice," Arturo said as gently as he was able. "You can remain here or continue to Slide with us until you find your own world or one to your liking. I'm afraid Sliding is a random process and we cannot promise we will ever find your world again. We too are looking for our home world."

"Quinn said that," Buffy told him. "It doesn't matter, there was no way I was gonna stay behind. Dawn's my whole world."

"What about parents?" Wade said gently.

"Mom died a couple of years ago," Buffy said tonelessly. "And Dad walked out on us when I was fifteen." She stared at an empty coffee shop as they passed. Wasn't that...?

"My Dad died, too," Quinn told her.

They rounded a corner and walked down a new street.

"Well look at this, Miss Wells," Arturo said jovially. "It seems the people of this world think like you do." He was pointing at a shop window.

Buffy glanced up at the sign above the door, not particularly interested, and froze. "The Magic Box," she whispered. She turned and looked up the street before pivoting and looking in the other direction. "I don't believe this."

"I know it's a little weird, but we've come across worlds where magic is widely believed in before," Quinn told her wryly. "And we've all seen things we can't explain." He looked at her more closely. "What's wrong?"

"This is _Sunnydale_!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Never heard of it," Wade said dismissively.

"I used to live here," Buffy said in a faraway voice. "The whole town caved in. It's just a giant crater now." Her heart clenched. Sunnydale was the home of some of her worst experiences.

"Obviously that didn't happen on this world," Quinn said thoughtfully. "Do you know why it happened?"

Of course she did, not that she would tell them the truth, they'd think she was crazy. "They said it was because the sewer system under the town was weakened by some earthquakes we had and the foundations couldn't hold the weight anymore." That had been the official line from those who had a need to rationalise everything.

Quinn pulled a face. "That's encouraging."

"Don't worry," Buffy said confidently. "We had lots of warning. The whole town was evacuated before it happened." Almost anyway.

"Is that what happened in LA on your world?" Wade said curiously.

"Some pretty weird things happened in LA," Buffy told her, trying to think of something that wouldn't make her sound completely crazy. "There was an eclipse that lasted months and then these, _creatures_ attacked everyone."

"Like the ones that took your sister?" Wade said wide eyed. "Do you know what they were?"

Demons. Buffy shrugged. "If this town is anything like the Sunnydale I knew, there may be a place we can crash," she said, desperate to change the subject.

"Lead the way," Arturo said.

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Buffy led them to the edge of town. Every so often her senses prickled, making her wonder if she had found Dawn each time. She couldn't check any of them out though, not with her new companions along for the ride.

It was there, the imposing looking mansion that she had once spent so much time in. Angel's mansion. It looked just as abandoned as it had back on Buffy's world and her senses confirmed nothing supernatural was inside so Buffy and her new friends went in. They were surprised to find the door unlocked, but took this and the lack of furniture within as more evidence that the house wasn't in use.

"So, Sunnydale. Where is that exactly?" Rembrandt asked once they had checked the house to make sure they were definitely alone.

"About two hours drive from LA," Buffy told him. "I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it, it's not much of a town."

"What happened out there?" Wade asked Quinn. "The vortex has never turned green before and what was with those guys and the blood."

"I don't know," Quinn said honestly. "Did you hear what they said before? Something about it being the 'time and the place.' Like they knew we would be there."

"Is that possible?" Arturo asked Buffy. "On your world do you have seers that can predict the future?"

"I thought you didn't believe in the supernatural," Buffy said trying to buy herself a few moments to think. Should she tell them the truth? It was going to be hard to keep everything from them, especially if they kept asking such hard questions.

"I believe that everything can be explained by science," Arturo said pompously. "On _our_ world. Since leaving there I have seen things that make me question that belief. There is an offshoot of super string theory that suggests that the rules of science can be different in other dimensions. If that is the case then there may indeed be worlds where anything is possible."

"We once slid onto a world where about ten per cent of the population had psychic abilities," Wade said. "And one where there were witch doctors and sorcerers."

Buffy thought about it for a moment. Was it possible that on their world there were no vampires, no witches, no supernatural or magical things at all? She wasn't sure how she felt about that. On one hand no vampires meant no terrifying battles for survival, but a world where magic didn't exist seemed to be one that was lacking something. She had once wished that she could be just like everyone else, but she couldn't have gone back to not knowing some of the wondrous things out there.

"I've never met anyone who claimed they could see the future," she said carefully, "But I know there have been people who can do it and they wrote down what they saw, sometimes hundreds of years before it's supposed to happen. I have seen prophecies that came true." That was safe enough. She wasn't about to launch into the whole spiel until she knew for certain how they would take it. "I once met a girl who was convinced she was going to die. She didn't know how, just when. She was right. She had a heart condition that no one knew about. There was no way she should have been able to know the exact moment she would die, but she did."

"So could we have been in one of these prophecies?" Rembrandt asked. Buffy suspected that if she did reveal everything she'd have an easier time convincing him and Wade than she would Quinn and the Professor.

"It's possible," she said cautiously. "I've never heard of one being quite so accurate that it tells the exact time and place something was going to happen. Once there was one that predicted the _night_ something would happen, but this was even more specific."

"Do you know what they did?" Quinn asked her.

"Not really. Someone once told me that it was 'always about the blood.' They cut Dawn's hand open, used her blood to do what ever it is they did." Buffy wasn't about to tell dimensional travellers of all people that Dawn was the key to the walls between dimensions and it was likely they used Dawn to do what these 'Sliders' could not and control the journey through the portal.

"What was with their faces?" Wade asked with a slightly sickened expression.

"They weren't human," Buffy said. Could she really tell them this? Would they believe her? "They're demons."

"Demons?" Arturo said in a voice that belied disbelief. "Now that is going entirely too far."

"What happened to there being worlds where anything was possible?" Wade said snarkily. Yup, she was definitely open to the idea of the supernatural. "Buffy, you said that creatures attacked LA. Were they demons too?"

Buffy nodded. "I missed the battle, but yeah, they were mostly demons, some vampires. We even found the body of a dragon."

"Vampires! This story gets wilder and wilder," Arturo said, throwing his hands up in the air.

"What were you doing there?" Rembrandt said, a deep frown on his face. "You andyour sister didn't belong somewhere so dangerous."

"I..." With the Professor ranting about her crazy stories in the background there was no way she was about to admit to being a Slayer. "We came with the clean up crew. I was out with a team when the base was attacked. That's when they took Dawn."

"And you and your friend came after her alone?" Rembrandt's tone reprimanded her as though she were a little gitl who couldn't take care of herself.

"They couldn't spare anyone else," Buffy said honestly. "They had to secure the base, but I wasn't about to let those demons make off with my sister."

"Maybe we should crash," Quinn suggested, glancing at the Professor who still seemed to be rather worked up over her 'tall tales.' "We can calm down and discuss our options in the morning."

"Don't worry sweetheart," Rembrandt said laying a gentle hand on Buffy's shoulder. "We can go to the police and they'll help us I'm sure."

"'The police in this town are deeply stupid,'" Buffy quoted the words of a man she had once hated. "Let's hope the same isn't true on this world." She nodded gratefully to Rembrandt and Wade before heading off to the room she had slept in many times before.

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Buffy waited until she was sure the Sliders had fallen asleep before getting up. She wasn't tired in the least and her desire to protect Dawn overrode everything else. She was going to do something she hadn't done since the Potentials started arriving in Sunnydale almost two years ago. Patrol.

She had a feeling there was no police imposed curfew as the Sliders suggested. If they had arrived anywhere else, maybe, but this was Sunnydale. She was going to find out what was going on here.

She decided to start with a sweep of the cemeteries before checking the hotspots like The Bronze, the park and the beach. She almost gasped as a thought struck her. How could she forget the High School?

Sneaking out was easy, it seemed the Sliders were all deep sleepers and Buffy had always been good at moving about unheard.

The cemetaries were quiet and no undead stirred there. It wasn't unusual really, mostly vampires only hung out there if they were at the bottom of the ladder, like newbies or Spike.

Next she hit The Bronze. It was a far cry from the club she had frequented. The doors were barred and no lights shone from within According to the sign this was a 'dayclub.' "Funny, I thought they were called nightclubs," Buffy observed.

From The Bronze it was a short trek to Weatherby Park and here at last she found some action.

She was walking across the sweeping lawns where kids would sit with their friends or significant other on sunny days. Now it was empty like the rest of the town. On Buffy's world the residents of Sunnydale had seemed to shy away from places like this after dark, but this was taking that to a whole other level.

"Hmm, pretty girls shouldn't walk alone at night," a voice said from behind her.

Buffy smirked to herself. Finally. She turned around to see a vampire wearing his game face, an innocent smile on her lips.

"Is that an invitation, or are you just making conversation?"

"Ooh, a spirited one," the vampire said, eyeing her. "It's been a while since I've had one as pretty as you. Usually it's just the offerings for me, but I had a feeling tonight was going to be my lucky night."

Buffy smiled coyly, one hand curling around the stake in her jacket pocket. It was an impromptu thing made from the branch of a tree outside Angel's mansion, but it would work.

"How would you like to be like me?" the vampire said in a seductive tone. He stepped closer. "You could be young and beautiful for all eternity. Would you like that?"

Buffy tilted her head to one side, exposing her neck. She drew in a deep breath and watched as his gaze swept downwards.

"Oh, what chaos we will cause," the vampire hissed and he lunged, his fangs bared and aiming for her neck.

Buffy moved swiftly to one side bringing up one knee to his solar plexus.

He fell back, clutching his stomach. "What did you do that for?"

Buffy shrugged. She wasn't done playing just yet.

As he moved towards her again Buffy pulled out her stake. His eyes widened in surprise.

"Who are you?"

"Take a wild guess," Buffy said her smile turning feral.

She leapt forward, fists swinging and he could barely defend himself from her. Eventually he managed to grasp her wrist and twisted it so she had to turn away to stop him from breaking it.

"You're not human," he said. "What are you?"

"I'm human," Buffy said. "I'm the Slayer."

Not giving him any time to react to her revelation she used his hold on her arm to flip him backwards while her other arm still holding the stake swept over and down directly into his heart. He was dust.

Buffy hated herself for feeling better but she couldn't deny what a good slay did for her nerves. She'd been anxius since she'd jumped into an unknown portal with an admittedly very hot guy not knowing where she was going to end up.

Now thinking more clearly Buffy nearly slapped her forehead as she realised her own stupidity. She was looking for an alternate Glory, not some run-of-the-mill Big Bad and the Glory she knew didn't go in for the usual hideouts. She liked big swanky hotel rooms and penthouses where she could do whatever Hellgoddish things she liked to do.

Buffy left the park deciding that the best course of action would be to wait for the next morning to hit each hotel and see if they had any clients mathing Glory's description. She'd have to find some way to ditch the Sliders or they'd be demanding explanations.

She marvelled at the latest turn her life had taken. She'd gone from being the top of the food chain in Slayer circles with a reputation amongst the demons of the world that most of her new sisters would kill for to being a complete unknown in a new world. It had all happened so fast, but even if she'd had more time she knew she would have made the same decision. She could never have left Dawn to face her fate alone.

Buffy came to a complete stop as she realised where her feet had taken her in her bemused frame of mind. Right in front of her was 1630 Revello Drive.

Buffy stared at the house for a long time. Home. This was home.

She shook herself. Not anymore it wasn't. Her home was a pile of rubble at the bottom of a crater not this small suburban home with a light burning cheerily from an upstairs window – the very window she'd climbed out of so many times before her mother discovered what she really was. Maybe there was a Buffy Summers in that house right now, maybe she lived with her mom and sister, or maybe Joyce had died in this world too, or Dawn had never been created, or maybe they'd never moved to Sunnydale in the first place and someone else lived in this house. Her stomach clenched as she involuntarily pictured herself sitting on a couch between Joyce and Hank Summers with Dawn sitting at their feet, leaning against their legs. Was that what her life was like in this world?

Her eyes narrowed as she caught sight of something on the doorstep. She moved closer keeping to the shadows in case someone looked out of the window. She was shocked by what she saw; a bag of blood that looked as though it had been taken from the hospital.

She looked to her left and saw that the neighbour on that side had left a similar blood bag on the step. Same thing on the right. What was going on here?

The vampire she'd slain had mentioned something about an offering. Was that what this was? An offering to keep the vampires fed so that human lives might be spared? What had this world turned into?

"If you're going to take the offering, do it and leave."

Buffy's heart skipped a beat. She knew that voice.

"What are you waiting for?"

Buffy swallowed hard and turned slowly, but nothing could prepare her for what she was about to see. For the last week he'd been all she thought about and now he was standing right in front of her and they might as well be strangers.

Angel studied her carefully lowering the crossbow he had been aiming at her heart. "You're not a vampire," he said. "You're human."

Buffy nodded not quite trusting herself to speak.

"What's a human doing out after dark? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Lost," she choked out. "I'm, um, kinda new in town and I got lost."

"You shouldn't be out wandering the streets at night," he warned her. "The vampires would love to get their hands on someone like you."

"I'll remember that," Buffy promised. She was staring at him, but she couldn't help it.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

She blinked and looked away. "Sorry."

"It's OK," he said taking a gentler tone. "I'll walk you home."

"You don't have to do that," Buffy said at once. The last thing she needed was to spend time around Angel when she would have to lose him again in a few days. She couldn't afford to get emotionally attached to him again.

"I insist, it's not safe for you to be alone," Angel said gesturing for her to go to him.

Who was she kidding anyway? She'd been emotionally attached to him from the moment she heard his voice. "Thanks. I'm staying in the mansion out past Crawford Street," she told him.

"I know the place."

They fell into step, side by side and Buffy was forcefully reminded of all the times she'd been at his side through patrols, dates whatever the reason she'd always liked walking through the night with him, just the two of them.

Angel seemed content to walk in silence, but Buffy was desperate to learn more about this world and his role in it.

"So do you do this a lot?" she asked eventually.

"Do what?" Angel said shortly.

"Rescue damsels in distress," Buffy said.

"I try not to make a habit out of it."

For a while it seemed that was all Buffy was going to get until Angel spoke once more.

"What about you? Do you often risk your life by walking alone after dark?"

"Far too often," Buffy admitted.

"You shouldn't," Angel said gruffly. "Life is a precious thing. You shouldn't waste yours by becoming some vampire's snack."

Buffy frowned. By the way Angel was speaking the forces of darkness were something everyone knew about in this world, that would explain why people were leaving blood offerings outside their doors.

"And your life? Is that not a precious thing too?" She wondered if he'd tell her he was a vampire. If he was anything like her Angel he'd let her believe whatever she wanted.

"It's different," Angel said dismissively. "I work with this group. We try to keep the town safe."

"Vigilantes?" Buffy asked curoiusly.

"Something like that."

They walked on in silence for a while with Buffy trying to pretend she didn't notice the way he cast glances at her every so often.

Angel walked her right up to the door of the mansion and waited while she pretended to fumble with the lock.

"Thank you," she said, turning back to him. "I appreciate this."

"It's no problem." Angel was staring at her in a way that made her feel very self conscious.

"We haven't met before have we?"

Buffy's heart leaped in her chest. Even on another world she and Angel were connected on some level. "No. I'm new in town, remember?"

"I'm sorry. It's just that when I look at you I get the strangest feeling. Like I know you."

"Maybe I just have one of those faces," Buffy suggested trying to sound light hearted.

Angel shook his head slightly, a crooked smile touching his lips. He reached out one hand and lightly touched her cheek. "I don't think so."

Buffy shivered at the touch. His fingers, so cold, were like an icy reminder of how things once were.

"I'm sorry," Angel said as if he was coming to his senses. He tried to pull his hand away but Buffy caught it in her own.

"Don't be," she said softly. Rising up onto her tiptoes she planted a gentle kiss on his cheek. "Thank you again for walking me home."

Angel nodded and backed away as she opened the door. "What's your name?" he called softly.

"Buffy," she called back.

He smiled the crooked smile that had always made her knees go weak. "I'm Angel."

And then he was gone, blending into the shadows in that silent way of his that made her wonder if he'd ever really been there at all.

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Dawn had stopped struggling long ago. What was the point? She didn't know where she was or what that thing she had been pulled through was and she didn't know where they were taking her. What she did know was that Buffy would find her.

She had been dragged around this town for hours as her latest kidnappers searched for something. If she was right they would never find her. Glory was dead and had been for three years.

Finally she was dragged through a lobby of some kind, past an unmanned reception desk and into a lift. By now she was physically and mentally exhausted and it was a struggle just to keep up with her captors.

The lift doors opened and Dawn saw a richly decorated room in reds and golds. Demons of the same kind as her abductors waited in various states of nervousness around a throne like chair upon which sat a very familiar woman.

Dawn was forced to her knees in front of the throne and felt the two demons sink down either side of her.

"Is this a gift?" Glory said disdainfully. "Tie it up in the next room, I'm not hungry right now."

"Oh, most beautiful one," Dreg said, prostrating himself at Glory's feet. "This is no mere mortal. We bring your key."

"The key doesn't exist in this dimension," Glory said, but she sat up straighter and examined Dawn closely.

"No, Great Lady. We brought her from her home world as an ancient prophecy instructed and now we deliver her to you."

Glory's gaze shifted to the demon. "I know you."

"I am your humble servant, Dreg" he told her. "I live to serve you. I, too, have travelled through the gateway between worlds to give you this most wonderful gift."

Glory slipped from the throne to kneel in front of Dawn. "Even so, the time has passed, the key can no longer help me. Not for ten thousand years anyway."

"There are people, travellers, that have their own key, Great One," Dreg told her. "It is because of them that we were able to come to you. When it activates again you can use your key to control it and use it to drop all the barriers."

"Excellent work, my new minion," Glory congratulated him, petting him on the head like a small child.

"There is one problem, most fantastical Goddess."

"And what's that?" Glory pushed Dawn's chin up with one finger so she could study her face.

"The Slayer may have followed us through the Gateway," the demon screwed his face up, waiting for the reprimand that never came.

"What's a Slayer?"

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A/N: OK, here's chapter two. Hope you enjoyed it. Please review and let me know.

Anyone wishing to join my Yahoo! group can do so by clicking the link on my profile page.

Thank you to those who reviewed.

Nat.


	3. The Nest

Chapter 3.

"Did anything of note occur on your patrol?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked.

"I found signs of a nest down by the public library," Angel said tersely. "They were all out hunting so I couldn't do much. I'll check it out again tomorrow night."

"Anything else?"

"Not really. Found some girl wandering the streets, walked her home. Other than that it was a surprisingly quiet night."

"Very well. Stop by tonight after sunset."

"I will," Angel assured and hung up the phone.

He pulled his shirt over his head and climbed into bed. The sun was just rising and with it the residents of Sunnydale were getting up and braving the streets, secure in the knowledge that their undead neighbours were sleeping the day away.

His thoughts returned to the blonde he had found over on Revello Drive. Buffy. She'd been pretty, no, beautiful and her sad smile had tugged on his heart, but more than anything he had felt _connected _to her in a way he didn't understand and wasn't really prepared for. He'd felt compelled to reach out to her, to touch her and hold her and when she'd kissed him it had been all he could do not to grab her and never let her go. Why did she affect him so?

Angel could still feel the softness of her skin on his fingers, the gentle brush of her lips on his cheek. He couldn't deny that he'd like to see her again, if only to find out how such a girl could be so reckless. Vampires were all over the world she must have known what danger she was putting herself in by walking alone at night no matter where she had just come from.

He could almost picture her standing there, barely up to his chin, looking up at him through beautiful hazel eyes that seemed both innocent and weary at the same time. She was a paradox with her soft voice and wide eyed gaze contrasting with the steel he sensed beneath the surface. How could anyone so young look as if they could take on the entire world yet seem so small and delicate at the same time?

Angel allowed himself a small smile. Perhaps she would find the need to go walking again tonight. If so he should be there. To protect her, of course.

Eventually he succumbed to sleep and he dreamed.

He dreamed of Buffy, her blonde hair glowing in the moonlight as she smiled prettily at him and this time when she kissed him it was full on the lips. She melted against his chest as he held her close, one hand stroking her hair. She felt so tiny in his arms that he was almost overwhelmed by the need to protect this vulnerable girl he barely knew.

The dream changed. He saw his own face fade in and out of a strange mist. Sometimes there were other faces, some he knew, and some he didn't. Old and young, men and women, dark and fair, beautiful and horrifying. A voice echoed over all of this, one he knew to be his own, speaking disjointed words and phrases that he couldn't connect.

"_Darkness... Cold and alone... the pain... I should have... mistakes I made... give up everything... I've never loved anyone before... two hundred and fifty years... my chance... challenge you... worth it..."_

The words spun round and round until he could no longer make them out until one phrase spoken in a light feminine voice and filled with emotion jumped out at him.

"_Close your eyes."_

Angel gasped as he awoke, the voice echoing in his mind.

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Wade rose with the sun. She stretched out cramped muscles, wishing there had been proper beds for them to sleep on, but thankful that she had for once managed a full night's sleep without being woken by some crazy person who wanted the timer, or to kill them, or both.

She found Quinn and Rembrandt talking quietly in what could have been a nice sitting room if it were furnished. The Professor hadn't risen yet, unsurprising given his penchant for sleeping in. They'd managed to get some things for breakfast and Wade immediately tucked in.

"Buffy up yet?" she asked between mouthfuls.

"Nope," Quinn said, chucking her a napkin.

Wade lowered the bagel she was eating. "Does anyone else think it's strange how quickly she accepted Sliding?"

"Weren't you listening last night? Buffy believes there are _demons _on her world," Quinn smirked at her. "Compared to _that_ Sliding isn't all that exciting."

Wade glared at him. "Sometimes you're as bad as the Professor. Who's to say that demons don't exist on her world?"

Quinn's gave her a pointed look. "Come on Wade. They're probably just a different species that they _think_ are demons."

"Maybe, Q-Ball," Rembrandt said, "But you shouldn't just dismiss it. You've done that before and you've gotta admit that sometimes you can't always explain everything with science."

"People have a tendency to rationalise what they can and forget what they can't," Buffy's voice said from the door. 

Quinn turned to her guiltily.

"Thank you," Wade said. "That's the worst part of travelling with scientists."

Buffy shrugged. "At least you two seem a little more open minded."

"I'm not exactly a believer," Rembrandt told her, "But I'm willing to wait until Quinn proves they're not demons before I make an assumption that could get me killed later."

"Very wise," Buffy said, helping herself to some food.

"I liked what you said about rationalising," Wade told her.

"I can't really take credit for that," Buffy admitted. "A very smart friend of mine once said that when he was trying to explain how a whole group of people managed to turn a vampire attack into gang members with something wrong with their faces."

Quinn's head snapped up. "So not everyone on your world believes in these demons."

Buffy half smiled at him. "Far from it."

"What really happened in LA?" Wade asked, leaning closer.

Buffy looked away. "I don't know all the details. I'd been living in Italy when I heard that my ex-boyfriend and four of his friends were about to challenge this secret sect. It turned into all out war and the citizens of LA got caught in the crossfire. Most of them managed to get out, but not all. My friends and I, we're one of the few groups that really know what happened, that's why we got stuck with the clean up."

"What about your ex?" Wade asked gently.

"Five against an army?" Buffy said, a hard note creeping into her voice. "What do you think?"

Silence reigned as the Sliders and Buffy ate. The Sliders didn't know what to say and Buffy was lost in her own thoughts. She wasn't sure if she should be mourning Angel or not, given that she'd seen his double a few hours before.

"What's the plan for today?" Wade said at last, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Some of us need to go to the police," Rembrandt pointed out. 

Buffy refrained from rolling her eyes, knowing that voicing her opinion of Sunnydale's police force and their effectiveness in such matters would be met with dissent. "I want to check out the nicer places in town," she said instead. "The demons that took Dawn used to work for this... woman named Glory and she liked to live it large. They might have taken Dawn to her alternate on this world."

"It's the only lead we've got to work on," Quinn said agreeably. "Though you should know that she might not be the same here as the woman you knew. We've met doubles of friends and even of ourselves that are quite different from us, with different tastes and personalities."

Buffy frowned. If that was true then Dawn could be anywhere.

"We should check out the newspapers, maybe hit the local library," Wade suggested. "See what we can learn about this world. We should at least find out what that curfew is all about."

Buffy could think of a few things she'd like to look up herself. Starting with why everyone knew about the supernatural here and what these offerings were about. Where was the Slayer of this world? If this was anything like the Sunnydale she knew then she should be here somewhere.

They quickly split the tasks between them. Wade, Rembrandt and the Professor would start looking around the better places in town for a woman matching the description Buffy gave them while she and Quinn went to the police station. They would all meet up at the library afterwards to learn what they could about the world they found themselves in. Buffy would have preferred to be alone, but couldn't think of a reason Quinn should go with his friends. It wasn't like she was expecting much at the police station anyway; she would just as soon not bother. She had dealt with this sort of thing before and knew she could handle it.

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As she suspected the police were less than helpful. Buffy had glared when the detective she'd spoken to had told her Dawn was likely already dead and had seemed to dismiss the whole thing, but she hadn't argued. It seemed that the Sunnydale police were useless no matter what world you happened to be on. Quinn had tried to persuade the detective to at least look for Dawn, but Buffy already knew it was pointless. The only thing that surprised Buffy about the whole episode was that instead of guns the police carried crossbows.

From the police station they proceeded to the public library. Wade, Rembrandt and the Professor weren't there yet so they settled into a corner with some back issues of local newspapers to see what they could learn. Buffy wasn't all that impressed with the public library, a place she had never felt the need to visit on her own world. What was the point when Giles had all the books she could ever want to read anyway?

After a few moments of sitting Buffy excused herself to use the bathroom. Once she was out of Quinn's sight she ducked out of the main doors and down the street. 

She paused and closed her eyes. There it was the hint of something supernatural nearby. She had felt it as they had walked by earlier, but with Quinn at her side couldn't do anything about it.

She followed her senses through an alley and right up to the door of a run down looking building. The windows were all covered with thick black paint so Buffy couldn't see in, but she didn't need to. She'd found a nest.

Without pausing to consider she stepped back and kicked in the door. It fell inward with a loud crash eliciting several hisses from within as sunlight flooded the doorway.

"Rise and shine," Buffy called.

The vampires were staying well back from the light and Buffy had to squint to see them in the comparative darkness. About six that she could see although there could be more hiding elsewhere in the house.

She moved into the darkness, stake in hand, never straying far from the doorway. All her instincts were in Slayer mode as she deflected the first blow and reached under the vampire's arm to penetrate her heart. She ducked under another clumsy swing and kicked backwards, sending her attacker through the doorway into the alley beyond. She could hear his screams as he burst into a flaming heap.

A third vampire lunged for her and she grabbed him by one arm and swung him towards a window. Even as his head smashed through the glass she was staking a female vamp that had tried to sneak 

up on her. He pulled his head back, patting his hair desperately trying to put out the flames. Buffy used his distraction to stake him too.

"Four down," she said more to herself than anything else. There were no easier killings than vamp nests in the daytime. They were usually groggy from waking up and no match for a fully prepared Slayer.

She spun to face the other two who had backed off and were eyeing her warily.

"How'd you do that?" one of them, a female sporting a pink hair do, asked incredulously.

Buffy didn't answer. Instead she stalked towards them implacably.

"Are you one of Angel's group?" the other vampire said. Buffy almost grimaced at the girl's woollen jumper that looked like some eighties reject.

Making a snap decision Buffy staked the pink haired vampire. "Say I wanted to get in touch with Angel's group," she said nonchalantly. "How would I go about that?"

The vamp stared at her desperately. "I don't know."

"This could get very unpleasant," Buffy said sweetly and grabbed the vampire's hair, pulling her towards the door. 

"No," the vampire begged.

"Tell me how to contact Angel or you and I will be taking a _very_ short walk outside."

"The High School," the vampire said. "That's their base. In the library."

Buffy staked the vamp without another word and stepped back into the sunlight. Fortunately the little escapade hadn't attracted any human attention or she'd probably end up at the centre of a crowd and she really didn't want that. She needed to blend in if she was going to stand any chance of finding Dawn.

So Angel and his little group of vigilantes were based in the library of Sunnydale High. What a novel idea. Of course that meant that at least one of Angel's people could have a familiar face.

Giles. He'd be able to help her, but would he be willing? Angel hadn't known her so her double wasn't a member of this group if she was even in town at all. Maybe her double had stayed in LA.

As she walked back to the public library Buffy considered possible ways to contact this group. Angel was her obvious way in, but she was reluctant to use him like that. She could go straight to the High School and meet Giles. If he was anything like her Giles he would at least listen. She could tell him she was a Slayer from an alternate reality and he might even believe her.

"You were a long time," Quinn noted as she sat down opposite him, a history book in her hands.

"There was a line," Buffy lied easily. 

The book was on the history of demons. Giles would probably find it fascinating, but most of it went right over her head. She struggled through it anyway until she found the part she was looking for.

"_Humans first became aware of the demonic races in the early eighteenth century. Before then a secret organisation named The Watchers Council were the only ones who knew the truth. It is unknown exactly what inspired the Council to come forward and tell our political leaders of the time what really lurked in the night beyond what little they will reveal. It is said that the Council lost their most dangerous weapon at that time and were no longer capable of protecting the world and fighting the war that began at the dawn of time._

"_Peace reigned between the countries of the world as leaders focussed instead on the enemy that lived amongst them instead of the petty rivalries that had besieged the world for so long. The peoples of the world were informed of the creatures that lived in their midst..."_

The book went on to describe how the population had panicked at the news and the changes that occurred afterwards, but Buffy's mind was stuck on the end of that first paragraph. Quentin Travers' voice echoed in her mind. '_The Council fights the war. The Slayer is the weapon with which we fight.'_ If the Council had lost the Slayer, what happened to her? How could there no longer be Slayers?

The First had been trying to get rid of the Slayer line, but Buffy knew now that it couldn't have succeeded unless it managed to get the Scythe. Even the Watchers Council hadn't been able to find every girl with the potential and the First would have certainly missed at least one. Besides new girls had the potential awaken within them all the time, all a Slayer had to do was stay alive for a few months and a whole new batch of potentials would awaken. The only sure way to stop the Slayer line would be to kill every girl on the face of the planet.

She felt eyes on her and looked up to see Quinn looking at her with a small smile. "What?" she said a little defensively.

"Demon history?" Quinn said, taking her book and glancing at the cover.

"Bet I found more than you did," Buffy retorted.

"Probably. There's nothing in any of these papers about a curfew, but," Quinn hesitated for a long moment. "There are reports on vampire attacks. This world seems to be very similar to yours."

Buffy retrieved her book and showed him the passage that had caught her attention. "Not completely. Here, everyone knows, not just a select few who choose to see the truth and not what they want to see." She frowned in thought. "It's probably not a curfew in the way you're thinking. Just common sense. People are locking themselves in their nice safe homes in order to avoid the things that go bump in the night."

"Is that really safe? Why don't the demons just break in?"

"Not all demons want to hurt people," Buffy told him seriously. "Some just want to get on with their lives. The real problem is the vampires. They feed on humans so they have to kill to stay... undead and a vampire can't enter a home without an invitation. I don't imagine a lot of people open their doors after dark."

Quinn was staring at her, his chin resting on one hand.

"OK, now what?" She was trying to be serious and all Quinn was doing was giving her adoring looks.

"Sorry." He shook his head as if to clear away a troublesome thought. "What about this Watcher's Council? Is that your group from back home?"

"They recruited me," Buffy said carefully. "But we didn't exactly see eye to eye. They tried to give me an order I couldn't follow, so I quit. They continued to be pain's in my butt for a while until their headquarters was blown up almost two years ago. No big loss if you ask me."

"It looks like the loss of this weapon is what triggered them revealing everything to this world," Quinn mused. "Any ideas what that is?"

Oh, yes, but she still wasn't sure about telling them that much. She shrugged helplessly. "I don't think they ever really trusted me that much." A good answer. It gave the impression that they'd never told her while still being a true statement. As long as Quinn didn't decide to ask her why they'd recruited _her_ of all people.

"I don't think there's anything else here," Quinn said, stacking up the newspapers.

"We've got some time to kill, right," Buffy said thoughtfully. "How about we look some people up on the computer?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It turned out that there had never been a Buffy Summers born on this world although Hank had married Joyce they'd remained childless. They were living safe and well in New York for some reason and still together, a far cry from their strained relationship of Buffy's childhood. It made her wonder if she'd been right to blame herself for her parents' marriage problems all those years ago.

Giles had been easy to find. The man had made some serious waves in the world as a member of the Council and some of his research was available in the library archives. He was also revered for his ability to read several old languages including demon ones. Despite all this he was still content to work at Sunnydale High as the school librarian although that might have something to do with the fact that his wife – Jenny Calendar – worked there as the computer science teacher. There was no word on why Giles had come to America in the first place.

Willow Rosenberg had graduated from High School with the highest of honours and then gone off to Oxford in England for four years. She was back in Sunnydale now working for a computer company by day and there were allusions that she was part of some shadow organisation, whatever that meant.

Xander Harris had been the hardest to find. After school he'd gone into the military and had risen up the ranks to become one of their top operatives. Buffy was saddened to find he'd been killed over a year ago by a demon sect in Africa. It made her worry for her own friend as he was currently searching for newbie Slayers over there.

As they'd searched Quinn had sat close beside her, had smiled at her enthusiasm when she'd told him that Jenny and Giles were finally together, had frowned when they'd read about Willow's possible subversiveness and held her when she'd shed a few tears over Xander. Buffy was grateful to him. Somehow he'd made the whole thing seem normal, maybe to him it was she hoped it never would be for her.

Wade, Rembrandt and the Professor had found them shortly afterwards and Buffy was dismayed to find that none of the people they'd spoken to had been willing to help. They'd even been kicked out of some of the places they'd visited for prying into the affairs of paying patrons.

While the Sliders returned to the mansion to compare notes Buffy decided to take a walk. She had the undeniable need to kill something.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Quinn had told them all about what he and Buffy had learned at the library, leaving Wade with a few concerns.

"Does anyone else think she's hiding something?" she asked no one in particular.

"She does seem to hesitate before telling us certain things," Remmy concurred. "It's like she's trying to decide if she should trust us or not."

"Or perhaps she's using the pause to make things up rather than tell us the truth," Arturo agreed.

"Maybe she's just worried how we'll take it," Quinn said defensively. "You've gotta admit we didn't react well to some of the things she's told us."

"True," Arturo said with a nod. "Normally I would say that we should hold off on judging her until we know more, but in situations such as these we cannot afford to make mistakes."

"She's been gone three hours," Wade said, consulting her watch. "It'll be dark soon. If she's not back by then... We need to tell her the rules of Sliding. She can't go wandering off whenever she wants."

"Come on," Quinn said. "Her sister was just taken. She should be allowed to blow off steam."

"Q-Ball, you know that we depend on each other for our very lives," Rembrandt pointed out. "A loose cannon in the works could just end up getting us all killed. Is that what you want?"

"No," Quinn said quickly. "I think we should just cut her a little slack, that's all. She's not used to having her life on the line like we are."

"You've got a thing for her," Wade said accusingly. "I should've known. You always go moony eyed over pretty girls, especially ones in trouble."

"I'm not moony eyed," Quinn objected. "I'm just trying to look out for her."

"Let's all calm down," the Professor said loudly. "We'll not get anywhere by making accusations and pressing each others buttons." He looked around at his three companions. "Hmm? Hmm?" When no objections seemed to be forthcoming he cleared his throat. "Now then, looking at it objectively, it does indeed appear as if this world, like Miss Summers' has creatures that they believe are demons and vampires. Whether or not that is what they actually are is beside the point. It is in our best interests and Miss Summers' as well to remain inconspicuous as far as possible and more importantly we must all remain inside after dark where it is safe."

"Buffy said that a vampire cannot enter a home without an invitation," Quinn said. "We should be safe enough here."

"Of course, that could be pure mythology," the Professor countered. "These 'vampires' are more likely a different species that are extremely photosensitive. The drinking of blood could be just a peculiarity of the species that could be overcome with time. This may sound like a vampire to you, but there is undoubtedly nothing supernatural going on. A stake through the heart will kill any living thing."

"Decapitation works well, too," Buffy said, startling them from the doorway for the second time that day. "And fire is always reliable. There are also crosses, garlic and holy water if you're just looking to hold one off, won't kill one though." She cocked her head to one side as a thought occurred to her. "Actually there was this one time that I saw a vamp killed with holy water. Stupid thing swallowed it. Now _that_ was a sight."

"We were getting worried," Quinn said, trying to ease the tension that filled the air. 

"So I heard," Buffy said giving him a small smile. "Thanks for trying to defend me."

"Now, we weren't trying to be down on you, girl," Rembrandt said gently. "But you have to understand that this is our life. Sliding to parallel worlds where you don't know what the rules are is a dangerous business. We have to be able to trust one another or we'll all end up getting killed."

"I understand that," Buffy said. "But I am not going to just sit around and wait for you to figure out how to save my sister. We've already wasted an entire day. Who knows what's happening to her?"

"The police will-"

"The police don't care!" Buffy exclaimed. "Even if they did I wouldn't trust them to do their jobs. Back on my world the police of Sunnydale had a reputation for not seeing what was right in front of their eyes. They may know about the supernatural here, but they're not exactly jumping to do anything about it."

"What do you propose?" the Professor asked her keenly.

Buffy straightened. "There's a group, based in the High School. From what I've found out they're what's really keeping the darkness at bay in this town."

"You want to approach them?" Rembrandt asked sceptically.

"Some of the members are people I know," Buffy explained. "They'll help us if they can."

"You can't be sure they're the same as the people you knew," Rembrandt warned her.

"No," Buffy admitted. "But I can't think of anything else."

"Very well," Arturo said at last. "In the morning we will go and talk to these people."

Buffy nodded tiredly. "I think I'm gonna head to bed." It was only just dark, but Buffy had every intention of patrolling again tonight and wanted to get some sleep before hand.

Quinn caught her at the top of the stairs with a hand on her elbow. "I'm sorry about them."

"Don't be," Buffy said turning to him. "Anyone can see how much you four depend on one another, it's understandable that they wouldn't want me jeopardising that. And I was a little defensive. I just want to get my sister back."

Quinn held out his arms for her and she stepped into them, resting her head on his chest. Downstairs she could see the other Sliders carefully not looking at them and half smiled to herself. They were good people. Quinn had told her how they'd come to be Sliding and how they'd gotten lost between worlds. Now all they wanted to do was get home.

"You guys are a team," Buffy said into Quinn's shoulder. "These people that we're going to see tomorrow are _my_ team. Except they won't know me and won't remember any of the things we've done."

Quinn held her at arms length. "Were they part of the Watchers Council on your world?"

"One of them was," Buff answered honestly. "I think this could also be the shadow organisation that Willow's supposed to be involved with. She spent four years in England and that's where the Council is based. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find they recruited her."

"In what capacity?"

Buffy shrugged. "You name it. Willow is off the charts smart. She's also an incredibly powerful witch."

Quinn's jaw dropped open. "Witch? As in magic spells and potions and flying around on broomsticks?"

Buffy laughed. "No to the broomsticks, yes to everything else. That's one of the reasons I want to see them tomorrow. They might not be the people I know, but if Willow's practising here she might be able to do a locator spell for Dawn. Even if she's not they'll have weapons we can use and the experience in using them. I need fighters, Quinn. You guys seem to operate on the belief that everything can be solved through the proper channels, I _know_ that it doesn't always work that way. This could get very bloody and very dangerous." She paused, studying him intently. "Which is why you guys probably shouldn't be involved."

"You think we can't take care of ourselves?" Quinn said, pulling away from her. "We've all been in dangerous situations before."

"Not like this," Buffy told him, not wavering in the slightest. "I know what I'm doing and so do my friends, but you've never even seen a vampire before. You'll end up getting yourselves killed."

"Isn't that our choice to make?" Quinn demanded. "I promised you I would help and I am going to do that."

Buffy stared at him. "You sound just like Xander and Willow when they insisted on fighting with me."

"So will you back off and let us make up our own minds?" Quinn asked her, more gently now.

Buffy nodded in defeat. "You're right. It's your call."

"Thank you." Quinn stepped closer to her and gently cupped her cheek in his hand. "Maybe you're right, maybe it's a mistake for us to be there, but that won't stop you going will it?"

Buffy shook her head.

"Then I'll be there too. You need someone to watch your back."

Buffy smiled. "Yup, just like Xander and Willow."

"I'm kinda hoping Willow at least didn't do this." Quinn leaned down and touched his lips to hers.

Buffy was too surprised to kiss him back. By the time she recovered her wits he had pulled away. 

"Goodnight Buffy."

"Night," Buffy said shakily, watching him walk down the stairs, a small smile on her face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


	4. The Meeting

* * *

Chapter 4.

Angel hesitated before the door. Was this a good idea? He barely knew the girl. She would probably laugh at him, or think he was stalking her. Was he stalking her? It was easy to see how someone would interpret his interest in Buffy as an obsession, especially as he had only ever had one short meeting with her.

It hadn't felt that way though. It felt like they'd spent years together, as friends or more he didn't know, he just felt really comfortable around her, something he hadn't felt around any human since he'd been alive.

He knocked before he lost his nerve. He was two hundred and fifty years old and terrified of a small girl. He shuddered as that thought reminded him of the dream he'd had that day.

The door opened and a black man opened it. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Buffy," Angel said. "Is she here?"

"Who are you?"

"I'm Angel. Buffy knows who I am." Angel resisted the urge to fidget.

"She's asleep, but I can wake her up. Why don't you come in?" The man stepped aside and gestured for Angel to enter.

Angel stepped over the threshold. "Thank you, but don't you know it's dangerous to invite someone into your home after dark?" The room he'd walked into was large and another three people sat around a huge fireplace.

The man paled drastically. "I'd forgotten about that."

"It's not the sort of thing you should forget," Angel said in concern. First Buffy goes wandering around after dark and then this man invites a stranger in. If this continued these people, whoever they were, would end up leading very short lives. It was amazing they'd lasted this long.

"Wade, can you wake Buffy?" the man asked the only female in the room.

"Sure." She hopped up and disappeared out of the room.

The silence that followed was tense. The three men seemed to be wary of him, not that Angel could blame them. His gaze locked on the youngest of the three, a tall man in his early twenties. He hoped this wasn't Buffy's boyfriend.

"What's going on?"

Angel turned to see Buffy wiping the sleep from her eyes, her hair tousled in a way that made her look even younger.

"Angel? What are you doing here?"

"So you two do know one another then?" Arturo prompted.

"Angel walked me home," Buffy shrugged. Angel noted that she didn't mention when that had been and refrained from mentioning it himself. She obviously didn't want her friends to know she'd been out alone after dark.

"Can I talk to you?" Angel said quickly.

"Sure."

Angel followed her into an adjoining room, closing the door behind him so the others wouldn't overhear. She turned to him, gazing up at him with fathomless eyes that Angel would happily spend the rest of his days staring into.

Buffy let him stare for a minute before clearing her throat. "So..."

"I, uh, I wanted to give you something," Angel said uncomfortably. He was really starting to think this was a bad idea. She was human, he was a vampire, not to mention the age difference.

"Neato, I love presents."

Angel found his lips quirk at that. She was so bright and cheery, even after being woken up. He reached one hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a small velvet covered box. He hesitated before handing it to her, not knowing how she'd take it.

She opened the box slowly and gasped, her eyes filling with tears. That wasn't good. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," she said shakily. "It's beautiful." She looked up at him, a wide smile lighting up her face. "Practical too."

"You seem to enjoy walking at night," Angel said, wondering why her eyes still shone with unshed tears. "I thought this might make you a little safer. You won't be able to kill a vampire, but it should buy you some time to get away, although it would be better if you stayed home. Or I could walk with you." Great. Now he was babbling like a school boy.

"It's very thoughtful of you," she said, removing the silver cross pendant from the box. "Help me."

Angel complied at once, taking the chain in his hands being careful not to touch the cross and fumbling with the clasp. She shuddered slightly as his cold fingers brushed the back of her neck.

She turned to him, so close now that her scent filled his mind with fog. He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

She reacted almost immediately, twining her arms around his neck and pullling herself closer, so she was flush against him. He wrapped his own arms about her waist, loving the feel of her small body pressed against his large one.

And it was over, the kiss ending as quickly as it had begun with the clearing of a throat.

Buffy swallowed hard, her face buried in Angel's broad chest before pulling away to glare at the intruder. "What is it Wade?"

The other woman's face was red with embarrassment. "Nothing, I'm sorry." She hurried out of the room.

"I'd better see what that was about," Buffy said reluctantly.

"I'll see myself out," Angel told her.

Once outside Angel leaned against a wall and groaned. He still wasn't sure if that had been a good idea, but it was done now, too late to take back and all he'd managed to do was make his feelings for the unique young woman all the stronger.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They rose early the next morning to a meagre breakfast before beginning the trek to the High School. Surprisingly it was Rembrandt that fell into step beside Buffy while Quinn walked behind with Wade and the Professor.

"What's with the cross?" Rembrandt asked curiously.

"Angel wanted to protect me," Buffy told him. The very thought made her glow with pleasure. Angel loved her, even here, and wanted to look out for her.

"With a cross?"

"Ever watched a vampire movie?" Buffy asked with a short laugh. "They may be a sure way to a quick scare for everyone else, but for me they're like trainng tapes. Vampires can't stand to look too closely at a cross and if they touch them their skin burns."

"Wow," Rembrandt said. "So all that's real. I thought you just _really_ believed in God."

Buffy laughed again. "He certainly believes in vampires if their reaction is anything to go by." She fingered the cross lovingly. She'd almost wept when she saw it in the box. Anyone looking at it would just see a plain and heavy silver cross, but Buffy saw the first gift Angel had ever given her. Twice. It was exactly the same as the one he'd given her all those years ago on the night they first met.

"I can't believe all those movies were based on facts," Rembrandt said in amusement. "What about Frankenstein? Or zombies?"

"You'd be surprised," Buffy said dryly. She told him about the mask her mother had obtained from her art gallery that reanimated corpses, including the body of a stray cat. By the end Rembrandt was gaping at her in amazement.

"That's incredible," he said.

"And that was a slow day," Buffy smiled.

After a few moments Rembrandt dropped back to where the others were walking leaving Buffy alone until Wade caught up with her.

They walked in silence for a while. Buffy wasn't really too sure about the other girl. She acted a little young most of the time and the others seemed to pander to her as the baby of the group, especially Rembrandt and Arturo.

"You knew that guy Angel from your world," Wade said at last. It wasn't a question.

"I did," Buffy agreed. "Very well actually."

"Was he your boyfriend?"

Buffy smiled. So this was about gossip. Wade probably didn't get much of that hanging with three men all the time. "Sometimes."

"What does that mean?" Wade asked.

"Angel and I were... complicated. I fell in love with him when I was sixteen years old and I guess I have been ever since as much as I tried to never admit it to myself. When we were together it was intense, but there was just too much... He left me when I was eighteen." Buffy sighed. "And he died in the battle of LA about a week ago."

"He's the ex that led the battle," Wade deduced. "It must be hard seeing him again."

"I guess. Weird too."

"I get that. We've all met friends come back to life from time to time." Wade glanced at Buffy out of the corner of her eye. "Your Angel is definitely a hottie though."

Buffy smirked. "I had noticed." She studied Wade for a moment before saying, "If you want to ask me something go ahead."

"Is there something going on between you and Quinn? I haven't told him what I saw last night, but if you're leading him on..."

"Hold it," Buffy said, stopping. "Quinn and I are just friends. I know he feels something for me, but... I don't know, with Angel around it's just too complicated as it is, without adding more problems to the mix."

Wade smiled. "I understand."

They walked on, the atmosphere between them much lighter.

"Will you stay with him?" Wade asked her quietly.

"I don't know," Buffy said honestly. "When I saw him all I wanted was to be with him again, but there are other things to consider. Dawn for one and my friends back home. Besides, I can't shake the feeling it would be unfair to them."

"Them?"

"My Angel and this Angel," Buffy clarified. "Am I betraying my Angel by falling in love with his double, a man that hasn't lived his life. And what about _this_ Angel? Is it him I'm having these feelings 

for, or the man I knew? If I were to stay here with him, would he spend the rest of his life wondering if the only reason I'm with him is because of a dead man?"

"It's definitely complicated," Wade agreed.

"That it is."

"Quinn told us you used to work for this Watchers Council," Wade said, changing the conversation abruptly.

"Unfortunately," Buffy said, wondering where this was going.

"It sounds kind of ominous, some secret society that fights a war between good and evil."

"Mostly the Council deals in bureaucracy," Buffy said with distaste. "They only have a few operatives that actually do anything to help in the war."

"They must be really good, if they manage to hold back the vampires all by themselves," Wade said, giving Buffy an intent look.

"Wade," Buffy said in annoyance.

"OK, OK," Wade held up her hands in defeat. "I guess I was just curious about how it all works. I mean, vampires, demons it's all kinda exciting."

"Not when you've spent your life fighting them," Buffy said. "I'm glad you at least believe me about all this."

"Let's just say that I'm a little more open minded than the Professor is," Wade laughed. "Not that it's all that hard to be."

Buffy laughed too, but quickly sobered. "For me it's weird to think that there are worlds out there where this stuff _isn't_ real. If Dawn and I really can't go home, maybe we should settle in one of those, find a place where we can just be normal girls again. That would be nice."

"Again?"

"I was fifteen when I became a part of all this," Buffy told her seriously. "Before that I knew nothing about the supernatural, I thought my world was like you say yours is."

"You found out and then the Council recruited you," Wade guessed.

"Actually they both happened at the same time. It was the Council's representative that told me everything."

"Huh." Wade was looking at her speculatively.

"OK, what do you think you've figured out?" Buffy asked worriedly. Had she said too much?

"There must be something pretty special about you if they needed some fifteen year old who knew nothing about what they did to work for them," Wade said lightly.

Buffy sighed. Apparently Wade was brighter than she liked to act. "That is a very long story that I suspect we will be getting into later today."

"And you only want to tell it once," Wade finished for her. "No problem."

Buffy was about to thank her for understanding when a display in a shop window caught her eye. She stopped abruptly and Wade gave her a questioning look.

"I have been wearing this outfit for the last two days," Buffy said flatly, her gaze fixed on the gorgeous top in the window. "That's like, a crime against clothes."

Wade grinned at her. "I like the way you think."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Angel says that the nest he found down by the library was gone long by the time he got there," Rupert Giles announced to the room.

"They must have known he was on to them, "his wife, Jenny, suggested.

"They didn't flee," Giles said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The door had been knocked down and the floor was coated with ashes."

"So there's a new player in town," Daniel suggested. "Question is are they on our side or did they take out the nest for another reason."

"Angel will step up patrols in that area," Giles told them. "Until he turns something up there is little we can do."

"So there's nothing to research today," Willow said hesitantly.

"No," Giles smiled kindly at her. "Thank you for giving up your Saturday my dear, but I think we can spare you this once. I believe you still have a wedding to plan."

"Actually we're all planned up," Willow began, but stopped when she felt a hand on her arm.

"Will, honey, when the boss gives you the day off, you're not supposed to argue," Daniel told her. His face was as expressionless as always but his eyes were filled with warmth.

"Especially on beautiful days like today," Larry said morosely.

"All three of you," Giles said firmly. "There's nothing of note about to occur so I believe we can all take a well deserved day off."

Jenny smiled at him as the other three shared exuberant looks.

"Quick, before he changes his mind," Larry said in a stage whisper.

Willow gathered her books together and stuffed them in a bag. "You're sure?" she asked Giles.

Larry and Daniel shared an amused look before grabbing her by the arms and leading her towards the door.

They never made it. Five people, three men and two women clutching shopping bags pushed their way in. Four of their new visitors were staring at the occupants of the room, but the fifth, a petite blonde woman who looked as if she'd just stepped off the cover of a fashion magazine, was gazing at the library around her in apparent awe. Maybe she was more bookish than she looked.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything," the tallest of the three men said, "But we need your help."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They'd been there five minutes and barely a word had been spoken. Buffy had introduced herself and her friends – the new ones anyway and as expected there had been no reaction to her name from most of those present. She had then looked expectantly at the people she knew yet didn't and one she barely knew at all, waiting for them to go next.

They hadn't. Buffy was beginning to get just a little tired with the suspicious way Giles and Willow were looking at them and the weapons that Oz and that footballer from High School were pointing at them made her cranky. What was football guys name anyway? Barry, or something. All she really remembered was that he used to try and look up her skirts, not the best way to remember someone. Oh, and he'd died in the confrontation with the Mayor on Graduation Day.

"OK, the staring is getting really old, really fast," she said at last. "If you aren't going to introduce yourselves then allow me. Rupert Giles, Jenny Calendar, Willow Rosenberg and Daniel Osbourne," she pointed to each one in turn then looked at the last man. "I'm sorry, but I really don't remember your name. I'm thinking Harry?"

"Larry," he corrected tersely.

"How do you know our names?" Willow asked so quietly Buffy almost didn't hear it.

"If you'll put down the weapons we'll explain everything," Quinn said soothingly.

"What's with the way people react to strangers around here?" Rembrandt muttered. "Never heard of hospitality?"

"You'll excuse us, but after you have been attacked by various creatures from the netherworld you too will become rather distrustful," Giles said. He nodded to Larry and Oz and they lowered their weapons, but did not put them away. Buffy amused herself by imagining all the different ways she could have taken them by now.

"We come from a parallel world," Arturo said in a voice that suggested he'd made similar speeches many times before. "We, excluding Miss Summers, became lost between these worlds and have been travelling ,or Sliding, ever since."

"Parallel worlds?" Jenny said disbelievingly. "That's science fiction."

"We've seen evidence of parallel worlds before," Larry countered. "Remember that girl that made a wish after her boyfriend dropped her?"

Anya strikes again, Buffy thought to herself fondly before wondering exactly what the wish was and hoping she wouldn't have to kill Anya in this world.

"I invented a device," Quinn told them. "It allows matter to pass between worlds."

"Say we believe you," Jenny said, still sceptical, "Why come to us?"

Buffy zoned out as her friends told the story of how they met and that Dawn was currently in captivity and it was for this reason they needed help. She was transfixed with the library, the room they had spent so many hours in during her school years. The people too, were fascinating. Jenny was exactly how she remembered her, a little older and with a wedding ring on her finger, but the same woman. Buffy wondered how far that went, was this Jenny really Jana as hers had been? Then there was Willow and Giles. The same, yet so different. Willow appeared shy to the point of incapacity while Giles was looking more like the tweedy, repressed librarian he had been five years ago than the more relaxed and ever so slightly cooler Giles he had become on her own world. Oz was Oz, as taciturn as ever and unless her senses were failing her he was slightly more human than the Oz she knew. Larry really didn't interest her much as she hadn't known him that well in the first place.

She was shaken from her musings when she noticed that everyone was looking at her. "Um, what?"

"They wanted to know why we approached them rather than anyone else," Wade told her. "We thought you should answer that one."

"Oh. Well, I know you, some of you anyway, from my world. Willow's my best friend and Giles, you were like a mentor to us in school. Oz was Willow's High School sweetheart and a good friend too." She paused at Jenny and Larry, not sure how to proceed. "You guys were there too," she said lamely. "Anyway, I know that when the chips are down you guys are the ones I want at my side."

"It sounds like there was more to our association than you have said," Giles noted.

Buffy sighed. As much as she didn't want to reveal everything, she knew these people and she knew they would want something if they were going to agree to help. "You were like a father to me," she said softly. "You, me, Willow, Xander, Dawn, we were family. A little dysfunctional at times, but still family. We stood on the front lines of a war for so many years, fighting back the darkness, we were all we had. That's why I came to you."

Giles ran a hand over his hair. "Tell us what you know," he ordered. "I'm not promising we'll help, but we'll at least look into this."

"Thank you," Buffy said gratefully.

"Start with why your sister was kidnapped," Jenny said, sitting down at a desk with a notepad and pen.

"Now there's a loaded question," Buffy muttered. She knew she'd have to tell them or they wouldn't be able to help.

"Is it because you used to work for the Watchers Council?" Wade asked.

Buffy was suddenly the centre of attention.

"You did?" Giles demanded.

Buffy merely nodded.

"Do you know what the Council's secret weapon was?" Willow blurted. "Giles won't tell us."

"And we've resorted to begging," Larry said.

"The Council didn't trust her," Quinn answered in Buffy's stead.

Darn! Caught in a lie. Oh well, nod your head and smile through it, Buffy thought desperately. "I was too volatile for their liking," she admitted. "They wanted me to be a good little girl and toe the line. I was never too good at following orders, so I quit."

"But maybe these demons that took your sister are hoping that you know something," Arturo said thoughtfully.

"You did say that the Council is gone on your world," Quinn recalled. "What if they think you're the only one left who can help them."

Buffy grimmaced. "As much as I hate to say it I have left an awful lot out," she told the sliders. "In the past Dawn has been kidnapped for many reasons and some of those were just because she's my sister, but this one was all about her."

"I knew there was a wicked story here somewhere," Wade said eagerly.

"Almost four years ago we came across this... _woman_ named Glory who was looking for something she called 'the key.'"

"Ah, the key," Giles said, one hand raised to forestall any questions while he thought. "Yes, there was something in one of my books about a 'key,'" he said slowly. "It never really confirmed what it did, but it did say there was only one of them throughout all dimensions. At the time we thought it was located in a Higher dimension, but now I'm wondering if it was in a parallel one."

"It was," Buffy confirmed. "It was in mine."

"There was a specific time and place that this key was to be used to fulfil its purpose," Giles remembered. "I recall working out the precise moment, just in case it did happen here. When the moment arrived it was indescribable. The sky was filled with fire for perhaps a minute, maybe more though I don't believe so, demons walked ever more freely amongst us, I have heard rumours of dinosaurs and other extinct creatures upon the Earth and lightning struck over and over and then it was gone. I've always wondered what happened there."

"Chaos," Buffy said quietly. "At the time the Watcher's Council was still active and it was them that told us what we were facing. Glory wasn't a demon or anything like we had faced before. She was a Hell Goddess."

Buffy would have smiled at the amount of mouths that hung open if the situation weren't so serious.

"Now that is taking things entirely too far," Arturo exploded. "So its Gods now is it?"

Buffy glared at him. "You don't have to believe any of this," she said irritably. "I'm telling you what I know, so please just listen." She gazed around the library to note that most people were shocked and it was only the Professor and perhaps Quinn that were inclined not to believe her. "We were as surprised as you are. Glory was one of a triumvirate of Gods that ruled their dimension. When the other two realised how insane she was they sent her away. I'm guessing this happened in more than one dimension, 'cos I'm thinking you have a Glory here too."

"It stands to reason," Giles mused. "Go on."

"We also learned from other sources that the key controlled the gateways between dimensions," Buffy said, her eyes fixed on the sliders. This would effect them more than anyone. "A little like your timer only the key has no limits and is far more accurate."

"Wait a minute, girl," Rembrandt said urgently. "If this 'key' is so powerful, could it get us home?"

"It's possible," Buffy admitted carefully.

"Oh, Remmy," Wade gasped and hugged the man tightly.

"Don't celebrate yet," Buffy cautioned. "Glory wanted the key to get herself home too. Like Giles said there was a specific time and place when she could make that happen and it's passed. It won't come again for thousands of years."

Wade's face fell.

"Even if it did, it might not be a good idea to try it her way. Her plan was to get the key's energy flowing and as long as it did all the walls between dimensions would come down. That might not sound so bad until you consider that some of those worlds out there will be Hell dimensions. Can you imagine demons walking down the streets of your world, a world without demons? They'd be completely unprepared. Even for the small amount of time the walls were down a lot of damage could be done."

"As interesting as this is, could we get to the point?" Larry said impatiently. "What makes you think this has anything to do with Glory and the key?"

"I recognised the demons that took Dawn**.** They were Glory's minions. They were completely devoted to her and if they found a way to come to a parallel world it makes sense that they would go to one where she was still alive."

"So she's dead on your world, right," Larry said. "Can't be all that much of a challenge."

Buffy ignored him. "It would also explain why they took Dawn with them instead of leaving her here."

"She has access to the key," Jenny guessed.

"In a manner of speaking," Buffy said. "The key was protected for centuries by an Order of monks until they found out Glory was after it. They called her the Beast. They knew they couldn't keep the key safe so they sent it to someone who could."

"Your _sister_?" Larry said disbelievingly.

"No," Buffy said. "Me."

"You? You're _tiny_. There's no way you could take on _Willow_ and survive let alone Hell Gods," Larry scoffed.

"Regardless, they sent it to me. They knew there was a risk that I would refuse if they just asked so they didn't. They changed our memories to make us think it had always been there, made it human and called it Dawn."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Hey everyone! Just a quick question. Does anyone know the name of the uber-vamps in season 7? I've misplaced my DVD's so I can't check myself and I need to know for chapter 6. If anyone does know please tell me in an e-mail or review, I'd be really grateful.

Thank you for the reviews.

Nat.


	5. The Weapon

Chapter 5.

It was like old times with friends old and new sat around the Sunnydale High School library reading books and researching. There were various groups working on different things about the study area. Oz and Arturo were looking for ways to kill a Goddess. They made a strange pair with Arturo taking every opportunity to prove how intelligent he was and Oz just listening in that quiet way of his that never made anyone feel like they were being ignored. Opposite Jenny sat with Giles and they were checking that there wouldn't be another opportunity for Glory to drop all the gates between dimensions. Larry was teaching Wade, Quinn and Rembrandt some basic defensive moves just in case there was a fight which was looking likely right about now. Buffy sat next to Willow at the computer and they were searching for evidence that it was really Glory behind Dawn's kidnapping.

"I can't find any mention of someone named Glory registered to any of the hotels," Willow said so quietly Buffy almost didn't hear her, even with enhanced Slayer hearing. "Nor anywhere else for that matter."

"I'm guessing you wouldn't know how to do a locator spell," Buffy said, giving Willow a shrewd look.

"Who me? Uh uh," Willow looked around nervously.

"Check the hospital records to see how many crazy people have been admitted lately," Buffy suggested.

"OK." Willow did it, but it was clear she thought it was a waste of time, but was too intimidated by the girl next to her to say anything. "Woah."

"I knew it. She's definitely here," Buffy wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or scared by that. The records showed that over the last five years the number of people that had suddenly been struck down with severe mental illnesses had increased in leaps and bounds. Nearly all of these people came from families with no history of mental problems.

"Why does this mean Glory's here?" Willow asked uncertainly.

"Glory eats brains," Buffy explained. "Not in a gross, cut off their head and devour what's inside kinda way, she just sucks out the parts that make them sane or she ends up a little unstable herself."

"So she leeches their sanity to keep her own," Willow surmised with a shudder. "This town never stops coming up with new ways to gross me out."

Buffy grinned at her. "I know the feeling." She gave Willow a shrewd look. "Are you a Watcher?"

"In training," Willow said shyly. "I was approached during my last year of college by a man named Quentin Travers. He knew how good I am with computers and research and stuff and he thought I would make a good Watcher. Giles is training me. Eventually I'll take over here and he'll go back to England."

"And he still hasn't told you about this secret weapon of theirs?"

"No," Willow said, checking that Giles wasn't listening in. "It's not that big of a deal. I mean, it's gone now, right, so knowing what it was won't change anything."

"Precisely," Buffy said. "Why the secrecy if the weapon's long gone?"

"I don't know." Willow was scrutinising her carefully. "Earlier you mentioned Xander," she said slowly. "Was he... I mean you don't have to tell me anything, but... he's still alive. On your world I mean."

"Yup," Buffy said. "He's the heart of the group, the one that holds us together. He may be a complete idiot at times, but I wouldn't trade him." She looked over at Willow who was staring at her hands. "I heard about what happened to him here. I'm sorry."

Willow continued to stare at her hands as if they held all the answers in the universe. "When I went away to college in England he stayed here. We wrote, but it wasn't the same. I came back after my first year and his parents told me he'd joined the military and they were forwarding his mail. He never even told me. I asked him about it in a letter and he was evasive, refused to tell me what he was doing. I guessed he'd joined special ops. We kept writing up until a year ago when his parents called me and told me he'd been killed by demons in Africa while he was on some mission. We don't know what the mission was. The last time I ever spoke to him face to face was in High School."

Buffy laid a hand on her friends shoulder. "He grew into a good man, both here and on my world. He fought the forces of darkness to keep people like you safe. I know for a fact that he loved you like a sister."

Willow smiled gratefully. "Are we really friends on your world?"

"_Best_ friends," Buffy said with a huge smile.

"Really? You and me? But you're so pretty and I bet you were popular in school, were you a cheerleader?"

Buffy's hand tightened on Willow's shoulder. "I've never had a friend like you. No matter what you were always there for me, with advice or a hug or a _lecture _if that's what I needed. You're a beautiful person Willow, inside and out."

"Hear, hear," Oz called. Buffy hadn't realised he'd been listening in.

She nodded over to him. "So you two are...?"

"Engaged," Willow gushed. "The wedding's in three weeks. You could come, or not, you don't have to, I mean if you've got other plans..."

"I would love to come," Buffy assured her. "But right now I don't know what's happening. I might be leaving this world in six days."

"Oh," Willow deflated slightly. "Of course. No big."

"If I decide to stay then I'm there," Buffy told her confidently.

"I'd like it if you did," Willow told her. "I'd like to know you like my alternate self does."

"Me too," Buffy said with a warm smile.

"I'm going to check the police files for any mention of this Glory and then maybe I'll see if I can find a location," Willow said getting back to work.

"Keep me posted," Buffy said standing. She wanted to check in on the other groups.

She approached Larry, watching with a critical eye as he instructed Wade in basic self defence. "Bend your knees a bit more," she suggested. "It'll give you a bit more leverage to flip him off you."

Wade tried one more time to heave Larry over her shoulder, but failed. "Show me."

Buffy stepped forward and Larry came up behind her. One arm slid over her shoulder and across her chest in a tight hold. Buffy gripped his arm tightly bent her knees and heaved. She was careful not to use any more strength than a normal girl would be able to. The point was to teach Wade, not to show off.

Quinn and Rembrandt clapped enthusiastically as Larry gazed up at her from the floor. "You've had training," he commented.

"You need it to survive in this town," Buffy said wryly.

"Too true," Larry agreed, taking the hand she offered to pull himself up.

"What's so different about this town?" Quinn asked curiously.

"It's located atop a mystical convergence," Giles called from across the room. It seemed everyone was keeping half an ear on her conversations today. "Also known as the Hellmouth."

"The Spanish originally called this town Boca del Infierno," Jenny added. "Which literally translates to the mouth of Hell."

"And now we call it Sunnydale," Larry snorted. "Love the irony."

"So all the nastiest beasties make their way here," Buffy said. "It's like Disneyland for them."

"Why stay here, then," Rembrandt said. "Why not pack up and leave if it's so bad here?"

"It's our town," Willow said softly. "I grew up here and I can't just leave it for the vampires."

"Someone needs to guard it," Jenny said. "Besides, it's not like this is general knowledge. Most people aren't aware of just how bad this town is."

"You're lucky it's about the right time of year for the annual opening of the Hellmouth," Buffy said. "It's quite a sight."

Her pronouncement was met with silence.

"You've seen the Hellmouth itself," Giles stuttered finally. "It actually opened?"

Buffy glanced around at the shocked faces of the locals. "Yours hasn't?"

"No," he said. "It attracts demons, but does not pose a direct threat."

"I guess yours is less active than mine was," Buffy mused. "So do you guys even know where it is?" If they didn't they were about to get the surprise of their lives.

Willow shook her head mutely.

"It's directly beneath the High School library. Under the study area to be more precise." She watched in amusement as Jenny, Giles, Willow and Oz all thought that through before pushing their chairs back as one and standing, staring at the space they'd just occupied.

"If it hasn't opened before I doubt it will in the next few seconds," Buffy said trying not to laugh. "Although this is Sunnydale, so you never know."

"You said was," Giles noted.

Buffy nodded. "Our Sunnydale sank into a crater when the Hellmouth was finally closed for good and before you ask I don't think the same could be done here. The circumstances were very different and there were certain items needed that I couldn't begin to guess where to get them from."

"I'd like to hear that story later," Giles said.

Buffy smiled. "I'll fill you in."

She turned back to Larry and his students as the others sat back down. "So what are we learning?"

"I'm not part of your group am I?" Larry asked. "You didn't remember my name when you first got here and you don't talk to me the way you do them."

Buffy pulled a face. "Um..."

"Just tell me," Larry said, squaring his shoulders. "I died didn't I?"

"You got eaten by a snake," Buffy blurted out. She'd never been all that good at giving bad news.

Larry appeared taken aback for a moment before he said, "Musta been a big sucker."

Buffy gave him a wan smile. "Mayor sized."

"You mean king sized right," Wade said as she picked up one of the crossbows Larry and Oz had been pointing at them earlier.

"Nope," Buffy smirked. "If it's any consolation it was a demon snake," she told Larry. "You went down fighting."

"Good," he was eyeing Wade warily as if afraid she would accidentally shoot him at any moment. "Was it a big battle?"

"Huge," Buffy let her mind wander back to that day. At the time everything had seemed so hopeless and she'd been sure they never would meet anything quite as terrifying as Mayor Snake. Then there had been Adam and Glory. And the First. Too many battles, too many friends lost along the way and now here she was smack in the middle of it all again, just as she thought it was finally over.

Distantly she heard Wade asking Larry to teach her to shoot. She knew Quinn was giving her worried looks, but didn't really want to talk about it right now so she went and sat next to Oz. He glanced at her as she sat, but didn't say anything, leaving her to her thoughts.

She didn't want to stay here. She'd thought about it a lot since Quinn had told her that there wasn't much chance of getting home. Even if it meant they would spend years or the rest of their lives searching for their own world again it would be better than staying here and becoming a pawn in this world's war against the darkness. This world may be desperately in need of a Slayer, but there had always been other champions. This world had Angel.

That was another sore topic at the moment. The man she had loved had died over a week ago and here she was mooning over his double. They might look the same but there was no denying the differences. This Angel had never given her a Claddagh ring, had never spent hundreds of years in a Hell dimension, had never held her when she was upset, or sparred with her, yet every time she saw him her heart leapt and she yearned for his cold touch. She barely knew him. Had he, like the Angel she knew, spent decades living on the streets and eating rats before finding a reason to fight? Had he come close to staking himself just to make his suffering end? She didn't know.

In the end it might not even matter. When Angel found out who she was he might not want anything to do with her. The thought that he might reject her caused an almost physical pain. Besides, if she planned to leave this world with the other Sliders and Dawn then Angel would be left behind and she would never see him again so what did it matter?

"Want to talk about it?" Oz said quietly.

Buffy jumped. She'd almost forgotten his uncanny ability to disapear into the background. Even her Slayer senses barely registered him as he was no longer a werewolf. "I'm good," she whispered back.

Oz nodded. "So."

"So... not a wolf," Buffy said lamely.

"Nope," Oz agreed his face was a blank mask, but his eyes flickered to Willow. Buffy could guess what he wanted to ask her.

"In my world you two aren't together anymore," she said slowly. "A lot of it was because of the wolf inside you."

"Oh," Oz said impassively.

Buffy was tempted to tell him her Willow was gay, just to see if she could get a reaction out of him, but decided against it.

Oz turned back to his book. Beside him Arturo gave no sign of having heard their brief exchange, or maybe he was just being polite. "Anything yet?"

Arturo shook his head. "These books are quite fascinating in a depraved kind of way."

Buffy snorted. Arturo wasn't going to believe in the arcane until he had proof, that much was clear. "If you find anything let me know," she said, standing.

She took her time in approaching Jenny and Giles. Of all of them she suspected this would be the most difficult conversation.

"It's our turn," Jenny said nudging Giles.

Buffy felt her cheeks redden. Apparently it hadn't gone unnoticed that she was using this opportunity to become aquainted with the doubles of her friends.

"You do seem to be making the rounds," Giles commented. "Although I note that your time with Daniel was rather short."

"I think we said everything that needed to be said," Buffy said shortly. Truthfully she was surprised she'd gotten even that much out of him. Giles' words caught up with her brain. "Daniel? We called him Oz."

Giles studied her from behind his glasses. "Angel will be here soon," he said. "He is our... champion for lack of a better word. I called him earlier to tell him a little of your situation."

Buffy nodded trying to hide how conflicted she was about Angel. "He and I have already met," she said.

Giles blinked and glanced at his wife. Obviously he knew that they could only have met at night, which meant that Buffy had been out after dark. "You're the young lady he escorted home the other night," he said.

Buffy nodded. "That's me."

Jenny smiled at her. "He seemed quite smitten with you."

Buffy decided not to beat about the bush. "And now it's your job to keep us apart, Jana?"

Jenny recoiled as if struck. "You know?"

"I do," Buffy said defiantly. She glanced at Giles.

"He knows," Jenny confirmed. "They all do, even Angel. He's too important to the fight for me to keep him in the dark about something so important."

Buffy sighed. "Then I'll say no more." She certainly wasn't about to tell the woman how her double died, for fear of driving a wedge between the group and Angel.

Jenny nodded in acceptance, her dark hair, far longer than Buffy remembered it, swinging about her shoulders. "So tell me what my husband is like in your dimension."

Buffy gasped. "You two are married!" she exclaimed dropping her gaze to Jenny's hand where sure enough a wedding ring sat upon her finger.

"Five years now," Jenny confirmed. "So in your world we..."

"Never got that far before you were killed," Buffy said sadly. They made such a good couple. It was a shame her Giles never got the chance to marry his Jenny.

Jenny nodded but didn't seem to upset. "How?"

"Do you mind if we don't go into that?" Buffy asked plaintively. "It's not important and it would really raise a lot of questions I'd rather not answer." Not to mention changing the way they looked at Angel for the rest of their lives.

Jenny nodded although it was obvious her curiousity had been piqued.

"So, the Giles of my world," Buffy said, turning her attention to the double of the man she had long considered her father. "You're like a mentor to me and my friends. You taught us, lectured us, annoyed the Hell out of us. At times you could be the stuffiest man I have ever met and then you go and do something utterly surprising like stabbing the bad guy with a sword 'cos he threatened to eat me."

Giles coloured slightly at the praise. "I make a difference then, in your world."

"Are you kidding?" Buffy said. "I can't count the number of times your advice helped save the world, or how many times you've put your life on the line. How many times you've saved my life. You broke every rule in the book for me."

"And you claim your world has no knowledge of the supernatural," Giles said sceptically.

"There was no need for the Watchers Council to come clean back home," Buffy said. "Most people go about their happy ignorant little lives while me and mine make sure they stay alive. It's got to be better here, right. I mean, everyone knows so they can all help. You've got the military on your side and no reason to hide what you're doing."

"And everyone lives in fear," Giles said. "The Military are of some use, I admit, but they are vastly outnumbered and do not bother with small towns like this. Their presence here is nominal at best leaving us to deal with the local demons. The civilians mostly stay out of it. I'm sure you have heard of the offerings by now. They are too terrified to even try to make a stand for fear that the demon population will punish them for it. Then there are the demons themselves. They have no need to hide now the world knows they exist. The death toll has risen exponentially since they were outed. No I believe it would have been better if the Council had instead decided to find another way to fight in the background."

Given the Council's usual way of 'fighting' this war Buffy wasn't sure if she agreed, but she wasn't here to start an argument.

The sound of the door opening made her turn in her seat. Angel was standing there with a dumbfounded expression, just staring at her.

"Can we use your office?" Buffy asked Giles. This was one conversation she didn't think should be overheard. "Thanks."

She felt rather than saw Angel follow her into the tiny office and close the door behind him. She perched on the edge of the desk and gestured for Angel to take the chair. He remained standing.

"When Giles told me we had visitors from a parallel dimension I never thought he meant you."

Buffy nodded, her gaze directed at the floor. "Did he fill you in on Glory and Dawn?"

"Yeah," Angel said softly. He moved to stand directly in front of her. "So on this parallel world do we know each other?"

Buffy nodded. "Intimately."

Angel's eyes widened. "I didn't think that was possible without..."

"It wasn't."

"Oh." Angel was still staring at her. "So you know about me."

"I know that you're a vampire with a soul," Buffy told him, finally looking up to meet his eyes. "I know that you're a good man. I know that I have been in love with you since I was sixteen years old."

"You were in love with my double," Angel said curtly. "You only met me two nights ago."

"True," Buffy agreed. "It doesn't feel like that though."

"No," Angel conceded.

"I fell in love with his soul and that's something you two share," Buffy tried to explain.

"Tell me about him," Angel said.

So Buffy did. She told him everything she knew about Angelus and his time spent with the Scourge of Europe, about the curse, about the decades Angel spent living off rats in alleys and finally their time together. She told him how they'd met and fallen in love and how Angel had turned on her seventeenth birthday and even told him about Acathla. Finally she described the last few years when he'd been in LA running Angel Investigations and told him what she knew of the last year. She finished with Angel's death.

Angel sat through her tale with a stoical look on his face, never once interrupting and only looking teribly sad when he heard how his double had lost his soul.

They sat together for a long moment, neither daring to speak. Buffy's mind was lost in the stories she had been telling and she was sure Angel was still letting it all sink in.

"Parts of it are the same as my story," he said at last. "I was sired by Darla too and I ran with her, Spike and Drusilla in Europe before I was cursed with my soul, but that's where things start to change."

Buffy looked up at him, silently begging him to continue.

"This world has been in bad shape for a long time. I wanted to spend all my time moping, but I couldn't. Everywhere I looked people were getting hurt. I couldn't just stand back and watch it. So I made the decision to fight with everything I had and I approached the Watcher's Council. I've been stationed here ever since.

"That's when they decided to put a Watcher here permanantly, to help me. I may not be up to the standard of their precious _weapon_, but I can still do a lot of damage."

"You know what the weapon was?" Buffy asked. The venom in his voice certainly suggested that he knew. And that he didn't approve.

"_It_ had only just been lost when I was sired," Angel told her. "The legends may have died out since then, but at the time every vampire knew. The oldest still remember, but the young ones are bold and no longer have any respect for myths."

So Angel and Giles knew. Buffy wondered why the Council were so determined to keep it a secret. "Do you know how it was lost?"

Angel frowned in thought. "I don't. Giles probably does though."

Buffy nodded. "I think we all need to have a talk."

She led Angel back into the main library, calling for everyone to join her in the study area.

"How was the weapon lost?" she asked Giles bluntly.

Giles blinked. "I can't tell you that."

"It might help," Quinn said. He was looking a bit hot and bothered from the training he'd been doing with Larry and his shaggy hair was all over the place. "We're scientists, maybe there's a way we can help you restore it."

"Science won't help," Giles said dismissively. "Only magic can return the weapon to us and that's impossible."

"Why is that impossible?" Jenny asked calmly. Buffy remembered that they'd said they had often asked Giles what the weapon was. They must be dying of curiosity by now.

Giles massaged his eyes beneath his glasses. "There is an... artifact that could restore the weapon to us. Unfortunately the only way anyone could get to it would be with the weapon itself."

The scythe. So the Slayer line probably still existed, but something had interrupted it. With the scythe the line could be restored.

"Exactly what happened to the weapon," Buffy tried again.

"What does it matter? You don't even know what it is."

"Actually," Buffy sent Quinn an apologetic look. "I never said I didn't know. All I said was that the Council didn't trust me, which is true, but I've known what the weapon is since I was fifteen."

Giles stared at her, calculating. "You?"

Buffy blinked. "You put that together fast."

"I had already deduced that it still existed on your world and fifteen would be about the right age," Giles pointed out. "And it would also explain why the Key was sent to you of all people."

"Would one of you care to explain what you're talking about?" Larry complained.

"How old are you now, if you don't mind me asking," Giles said, ignoring the others who were looking between the two of them in confusion, all except Angel who it seemed had also figured it out.

"Twenty three."

"Quite an accomplishment from what I know of the situation," Giles said.

Buffy shrugged. "I had a good teacher, a good team."

"I was..." Giles stared at her for confirmation.

"_My _Watcher," Buffy said proudly.

Giles smiled at her. "Would you object to me testing this?" His eyes flickered to the abandoned crossbow on the table between them.

"Not at all," Buffy said easily. Such tests were part of her regular training so she knew she could handle it.

He leaned over and grasped the already loaded crossbow and pointed it at her.

"What are you doing?" Quinn yelled. Buffy could see him trying to push through to get to her or Giles.

Giles fired the crossbow.

As if she were plucking a flower Buffy reached up ad took the bolt from the air. It snapped between her fingers. "Shoddy," she said absently, examining it. "The woods far too thin to be much good. It would probably shatter on impact rather than kill anything." A thought struck her. "Is shoddy really a word? Where does that come from?"

As if in answer another crossbow bolt sped towards her. She didn't look up, merely snatched it from the air as easily as she had the first. "Hey!" she said, waving the bolt at Giles. "I gave you one free shot, but don't think you can go getting all trigger happy on me."

"Did everyone else see that?" Oz asked rhetorically.

Larry shrugged. "I saw it. Not sure that I believe it."

"What the Hell?" Rembrandt exclaimed.

Buffy was sure the others were all experiencing similar states of shock. She gestured for Giles to do the explaining.

Giles held up one finger to silence them before running into his office. He was gone only a moment before returning with an ancient looking book in his hands. He was flipping through it frantically muttering to himself.

"Ah, here it is," he said at last. "The legend of the Slayer." He paused to skim the page before reading aloud. "'Into every generation there is born the Chosen One. One girl in all the world with the strength and the skill to fight the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.'" Buffy was slightly amused that he'd had to read that little speech from a book. On her world he'd known it by heart.

There was a pause while that sank in and then Larry exploded. "The Watchers' secret weapon is a _girl_?"

"That's why it's such a big secret," Willow deduced. "The Council never fought the war, this Slayer did."

Buffy realised that made sense and from what she knew of the Council they'd never want that piece of information out. They'd want people to think they were the ones that had kept humans safe for centuries. "The Council are pen pushers," she said snidely. "They sit behind their desks and act like they're saving the world while others do their dirty work."

"And you're the Slayer!" Wade said excitedly. "_That_'s why the Council recruited you."

"I wouldn't have been their first choice," Buffy said wryly. "They like girls who have spent their entire lives indoctrinated in the Council's ideals. Girls who toe the line and follow orders. Girls they can send to their early deaths without complaints. I never really fit that bill, which is why they didn't like me."

"You talk about the Council in the past tense,"Giles noted.

"That's because they're gone now," Buffy said shortly. "Their headquarters were blown up about a year and a half ago. No real loss. Now, please, what happened to the Slayer line?"

Giles sighed. "A very powerful black witch used the artifact I mentioned earlier to stop new Slayers from being Called. When the Slayer of the time died, no new girl was called to take her place."

"So with the scythe you could start the line going again," Buffy said half to herself.

"Scythe? Yes, from what I've read that's an apt description. The only problem is that it was sealed away so that only a Slayer could reach it," Giles said.

"Hello!" Buffy said pointing to herself. "Slayer here."

"Even if we had it we would need a witch with the power to negate the spell," Giles pointed out.

"One thing at a time." Buffy was reminded of the conversation she'd had with Willow on the roof of their base back in LA. "Can you give me directions?"

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A/N: Hey guys! Just a quick thank you to all the reviewers who helped me out with the name of the Turok Han. You will be seeing them in chapter 6. If you're really desperate to find out what happens in that chapter it's already up on my Yahoo! Group. I expect to be posting it here next Sunday. So thanks again to **Cpt. Quinn, grpruett, Harry 2, Vixen 2** and **Paladin Steelbreaker**.


	6. The Cave

Chapter 6.

Oz's van cruised across the countryside bouncing the passengers within mercilessly.

They'd waited until morning to make the trip. Buffy had chafed at the delay, but understood that in a world where no one ventured out after dark any moving vehicle would be a prime target.

Oz was driving the van with Wade sitting beside him. She was chattering incessantly while he just nodded politely when the occasion warranted it. Buffy sat in the back with Larry and Quinn. Angel had wanted to come with them, but even though it was dark in the back of the van they couldn't guarantee he wouldn't be exposed to sunlight. The five of them would be enough, more than enough probably. Buffy suspected that the rest of them would all just be in the way once they reached their destination.

"How are you doing?" Quinn asked her quietly. Larry glanced up at his voice but remained silent.

Buffy shrugged. "I'm looking forward to some action I guess. And it'll be great to have the scythe again. I'm going to need it if we're going to have any hope of defeating Glory."

"This is all pretty incredible," Quinn said. "Vampires, magic... Slayers. I can't believe all this stuff is real. The way you caught that arrow was... wow!"

"Bolt," Buffy corrected absently. "Arrows come from bows, crossbows shoot bolts."

"So you're a weapons expert too," Quinn said jokingly.

"It's all part of the package," Buffy said. "You have to know what you're fighting with or you'll just end up dead."

Quinn leaned his head back against the side of the van. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Would you have believed me?"

Quinn reached out and took her hand in his. "Yes."

Buffy smiled at him. "I'm not sure you even believe me _now_."

Quinn smiled back wistfully. "I want to."

"It's a lot to take in, I understand that," Buffy said. "But until you _do_ believe you're putting yourself at risk. That's why I wanted you along today. I've got a feeling you're going to see things you never imagined possible." She would have insisted Arturo come too, as the only other non believer, but he was better suited to the research so Wade had jumped in instead. Hopefully, if she could convince Quinn, Arturo would be swayed by them.

The van slowed to turn off the main road. Buffy knew that they must be nearly there.

"So what's so special about this scythe?" Larry said suddenly.

"It contains the essence of the Slayer," Buffy explained. "If we can get it, it can be used to restart the Slayer line and hopefully make things better for this world."

"That's the second time you've referred to a 'line,'" Quinn noted.

"The power passes from girl to girl," Buffy said patiently. "The moment a Slayer dies the power passes to a potential Slayer. It's a continuous line. At least it was supposed to be."

"Until some witch broke it," Larry surmised. "Why was Giles so surprised at your age?"

"Slayers don't tend to live long fulfilling lives," Buffy said. "You know that adage, 'Live fast, die young?' That pretty much defines a Slayer's life. I've been a Slayer for eight years now. Trust me that's quite an achievement. My next goal is to live to be twenty five. See, according to the Watcher diaries the oldest Slayer ever, died when she was twenty four and she was Called late, like when she was twenty. I intend to break that record too."

"It must be pretty rough being a Slayer," Quinn said. Buffy suddenly realised that he was still holding her hand when he squeezed it gently.

"Yeah, but things are better than they used to be. There's not just one anymore." Buffy glanced at Larry to see him watching her avidly. "The power of the scythe allowed _my_ Willow to activate all the potentials. There are _hundreds _of Slayers now."

"Is it possible to do something like that here?" Larry demanded.

"I don't know," Buffy said honestly. "I think the first task has to be getting the line started again and that's going to be hard enough unless you can find a seriously powerful witch."

"That might be a problem," Larry admitted. "Most of the really powerful witches and warlocks aren't all that trustworthy. There are several dozen dabblers in Sunnydale alone, but I doubt any of them will be able to do it. Then we have to find one of these potentials."

"That's the Council's speciality," Buffy assured him.

"It's probably genetic," Quinn mused. "We might be able to find the specific gene that controls these abilities. That would allow you to locate the potentials."

"It's not genetic, it's mystical," Buffy said before he could start reading too much into the science side of things. "Being a Slayer has nothing to do with your genes. For example, Willow located a pair of identical twins. One of them is a Slayer, the other's a normal girl."

"Still..."

"OK, then, try this," Buffy said. "Dawn was created from my DNA. You could say she's a younger, more annoying and very different looking clone of me. If anyone in the world should have the potential to be a Slayer it's her, but she's not."

The van came to a slow stop.

"Let's find the scythe first," Buffy suggested. "Then we can worry about finding potentials."

Quinn nodded and stood, easily pulling Buffy up with him and they followed Larry out of the van.

Buffy stretched languidly. It had been dark in the back of the van and a little cramped between the two men and with several trunks of weapons packed in around them so she was glad she had a chance to get rid of the kinks before entering the cave on the coast that Giles told them was the current resting place of the scythe.

Buffy glanced around at her companions who were arming themselves for battle. Oz and Larry, although only regular humans, both knew the kind of dangers they were likely to face, so she wasn't worried about them. Wade seemed fairly sensible and would probably follow the others lead instead of rushing in foolishly. It was Quinn who worried her. While she had no doubt that he could handle himself against other humans he had never dealt with the kind of things they were likely to come across. That, coupled with the way he always seemed to jump to the defence of anyone in trouble gave her misgivings.

"Quinn," she called as the others started walking ahead. He waited patiently until she'd caught him up. "I wanted to make sure you don't do something incredibly stupid today."

"Oh?"

Buffy caught his arm to stop him from walking. "You need to remember that I can take care of myself, probably far better than you can in these situations. I'm not trying to suggest you're..."

"Less than a man," Quinn guessed.

"Yeah, that," Buffy said slowly. "It's just, you're the kind of guy who thinks he has to protect girls like me, but I'm not helpless. If you want to protect someone, try Wade. Whatever happens in there, you can bet it will be centred on me and I can't be worrying about you, too."

"You don't need to protect _me_, either," Quinn retorted. "I've been to other worlds, seen dinosaurs and all kinds of things."

"Fair enough," Buffy said, backing off. "I don't want to see you hurt any more than you do me. Please, just remember that I'm _not_ a normal girl. I have abilities that you don't and I've been trained to use them. Trust that I know what I'm doing."

"Buffy, Quinn," Wade called from up ahead. "We think we've found the cave, but it's pretty dark in there."

Their discussion forgotten Buffy and Quinn hurried to where the others were waiting by a sheer cliff with a cave mouth cut into the side.

"It's pretty deep," Larry told them, fishing a torch out of the bag he'd slung over his shoulders. "We only went a few feet in. Thought we'd best wait for you."

Buffy nodded. She felt a little apprehensive now that she was here, but after the conversation she'd just had with Quinn she wasn't about to let that show. "I need my hands free," she said, eyeing the flashlight Oz was holding out to her. She had a crossbow slung over one shoulder and a few stakes in strategic, easy to reach places, but she'd foregone anything big and sharp for that very reason. Hopefully she'd be coming out with the biggest, sharpest – not to mention prettiest – weapon of them all.

"We should have brought those little mining hats," Wade said brightly.

"Nah," Buffy said. "It would only mess up my hair."

The moment Buffy stepped into the mouth of the cave their whole conversation became redundant anyway. Torches in sconces lit up in intervals along each side of the cave, which stretched far back into the cliff. At the very back of the cave was a hole which looked like it would be big enough for even the bulky Larry to squeeze through.

"It didn't do that last time," Larry said, eyeing the flickering torches in awe.

"It's like something out of a fantasy novel," Wade breathed.

"Strangely welcoming," Quinn noted.

"It's like someone wants me to be here," Buffy agreed.

As a group they headed to the hole at the back of the cave. All of Buffy's senses were on high alert, yet she couldn't sense anything. She wondered if the lights were to lull her into a false sense of security before something nasty jumped out at her.

Buffy restrained Quinn by grabbing his elbow before he could duck through the opening. She gave him a pointed look, reminding him of what they had discussed outside before leading the way.

She stopped almost immediately on the other side. Again torches were starting to light up the smaller room. It was dank in here and the air thick with moisture. From somewhere she could hear the steady drip of water. At her toes there was a sheer drop, perhaps twice Quinn's height, other than that and the torches along the walls the room was empty.

Quinn peered over her shoulder. "Anyone got a rope?"

Buffy could hear Larry rifling through his backpack.

"It's not too bad," Quinn said quietly. "We could probably take the fall, but then we couldn't get back up again."

"I wouldn't want to fall that far," Wade said nervously. "With my luck I'd probably break both my legs."

"We need something to tie the rope to," Larry said.

"Here," Oz called. He was pointing at the bracket holding one of the torches to the wall. It looked sturdy enough.

Buffy stepped over the edge and landed in a slight crouch. She peered about her in the flickering light, but couldn't see anything that would indicate where the scythe was, if it was reaally here.

"Buffy," Quinn shouted from above.

"I'm here," Buffy called back. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for."

"Wait for us," Quinn said.

Buffy rolled her eyes and walked over to the far wall. Still nothing. She hoped they hadn't come all this way for a massive waste of time.

She gasped as a sudden wash of magic swept through the room and turned to where Wade was starting to shimmy down the rope.

"Slayer," a voice whispered.

Buffy searched for the source of the voice but there was nothing.

"That's me," she said bravely.

A cold wind began to rush through the cave, blowing her hair back from her face. "Leave now."

"Not until I have the scythe," Buffy yelled into the wind. She almost choked on it as it spat her words back at her. Wade was clinging to the rope for dear life and she could see the guys above struggling not to be blown over the edge although the torches appeared unaffected.

"Leave," the voice screamed.

"NO!" Buffy yelled.

The wind stopped and Buffy waited for the voice to speak again. She soon realised the feeling of magic had dissipated.

"I think that was our witch," Buffy said. "I guess this place isn't so welcoming after all."

"Um, look behind you," Oz said.

Buffy turned and blinked at what had been a blank wall in shock. Now there was a big wooden door there, looking for all the world as if it had been there all along.

"I don't think she knows what she wants," Buffy mused aloud. The wind had seemed threatening, but it had been a cover for revealing the door. The witch's voice told them to go, but the torches and sudden appearance of the door certainly said something different.

"What do we do?" Wade said from right behind her.

"We keep on," Buffy said briskly. "If any of you want to wait here that's fine, but we need the scythe."

"We're with you," Larry told her. Beside him Oz nodded his silent agreement.

"Us, too," Wade said firmly.

"I think this has just gone up a notch on the weird scale, but I'm not backing out yet," Quinn agreed.

Buffy smiled at him. Maybe he was actually starting to believe.

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Arturo tapped his finger onto the page before him. This was utterly ridiculous. These poor, primitive people truly thought that all manner of supernatural monsters existed. The girl they'd brought with them believed she was some kind of warrior and apparently the tall man they'd named Angel was a vampire. Complete buffoons the lot of them if they couldn't see that there was a scientific explanation for all of it. Of course, he wasn't about to tell Mr Giles that, or his delightful wife and that dear girl, Miss Rosenberg. He'd wait until he had his proof and then show them how very wrong they'd been all their lives.

"Mr Brown," he said quietly, not wanting to attract the attention of their new associates. "What do you think about all this?"

Rembrandt scratched at his nose. "To be honest, I'm not sure, Professor," he admitted. "I've always been open to the idea of the occult and there's no denying some of the things we've seen since we began sliding, but this is a lot to take in."

So he wasn't the only one with doubts. Perhaps Mr Brown was finally coming around to his way of thinking. "It's balderdash is what it is," he said irritably. "These are well educated people for the most part. Mr Giles in fact has a doctorate, Mrs Giles is a computer teacher and programme designer of some skill and Miss Rosenberg has just finished studying in Oxford. Yet they persist in this absurd belief that vampires _do_ exist." He'd had Miss Wells look up as much information as she could the night before while they'd been awaiting sunrise, unwilling to trust these people on face value. After all they'd had many bad experiences in the last two years of sliding.

"But I saw Buffy catch that bolt out of the air as if it were barely moving," Rembrandt said. "And those _things _that took her sister certainly weren't human. Who's to say they aren't demons? Then there's what they did to the vortex with only a drop of blood."

Arturo frowned. That had been bothering him too. There was no reason why a drop of blood should have had such an affect and they still didn't even know what the purpose of it was or if the next slide would be affected as well.

"All I'm saying is that we shouldn't discount it out of hand," Rembrandt continued. "You've said yourself that the rules of science can be different on different Earths."

Could it be true? Was it too far fetched to believe that in this world and Miss Summers' the rules were so different that the supernatural did indeed exist. He wasn't about to believe it yet though. Not until he'd seen proof with his own eyes.

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They walked thorugh the door into a dimly lit corridor cut into the rock of the cliff.

"Man-made," Quinn noted. "I thought only a Slayer could get to this scythe. Anyone could get this far."

"Don't get too complacent," Buffy warned, her eyes scanning ahead for danger. "We still haven't found it yet. And don't forget those lights, they seem to be reacting to me." It was true. As she walked past torch sconses they would flicker to life, yet if anyone else led the torches would remain unlit.

"We could have used flashlights," Quinn pointed out. "And with the right equipment we could have found the door, too."

"Don't be so sure. It was hidden with magic, I'm willing to bet only magic could have revealed it and only in the presence of a Slayer."

Quinn shrugged, apparently not believing her but not bothering to argue the point.

"You haven't seen the things I have," Buffy told him. "You believe in science having all the answers, but magic can be a powerful tool. On my world Willow is pretty good with both, but there are things that can be done with magic that can't be done with science and I have yet to see science achieve something that Willow couldn't."

The corridor opened out further ahead into what looked like a huge cavern.

Buffy held up her hand and they all stopped abruptly. "What is it?" Larry called softly from the back of the line.

Buffy strained to hear the ominous rumbling that had worried her a moment before. "I don't know."

"Then let's keep moving," he said tensely.

A few moments later Buffy stepped out into the cavern. "You could fit my whole house in here," she whispered in awe. The ceiling was high and vaulted and the sides were so smooth they looked polished.

"Definitely man made," Quinn muttered.

What caught Buffy's eye most of all was the beautiful red axe-like weapon that rested in the centre of the room. It was almost exactly like she'd found it beneath the vineyard, its blade buried in a slab of solid black rock. A shaft of light from a hole in the ceiling fell upon it, casting it in an ethereal light.

"Is that it?" Wade said.

"It looks like something out of the tales of Arthur and Merlin," said Quinn. "Excalibur, just sitting there, waiting for someone to take it." He approached it reverentially, his hand coming to rest upon the handle. He grasped it and made to pull upwards, but it remained in the rock.

"Here, let me try," Larry said and hurried to Quinn's side. He too tried to remove the scythe with no success.

"I sure hope we haven't come all this way for nothing," Quinn said as they tried to pry it out together.

Buffy bit her lip and watched them struggle. She noticed that Wade and Oz were also watching them with amusement, at least Wade was. Who knew what Oz was thinking?

"Excuse me," she said laying a hand on Larry and Quinn's arms. "You're in my way."

Larry glared at her, but stepped back anyway, with Quinn at his side.

Buffy let her fingertips curl around the handle before she slid the scythe out of the rock so easily it could have been a knife in butter. She turned to the others, a sweet smile on her lips at their gobsmacked expressions. "You loosened it for me," she assured the two big men.

"We should go," said Oz.

"Sure," Buffy agreed. "We got what we came for." It had been much easier than she'd been expecting, actually, but she was keen to get out of the dank. It wasn't good for her hair. She felt euphoric with the scythe back in her hands and there was a sense of belonging as the weapon sang to her making her blood pound faster in return.

A deep rumbling echoed from above and the ground shook slightly.

"Earthquake!" Wade screamed.

"Run," Buffy barked.

But before they could get back to the entrance to the corridor there was a sound like the crack of thunder and rocks fell and blocked their exit.

"Start digging," Buffy ordered. She had a bad feeling about this. She remebered thinking that she was being lulled into a false sense of security before the trap was sprung. This must be the trap. She should have made the others stay behind or at least not spent so long congratulating herself. At least as traps went it was pretty benign so far.

No sooner had she had that thought when the sound of earth shifting met her ears. She spun and gazed out across the cavern. Her heart sank at the sight before her. The ground was heaving as many vampires were forcing their way from beneath the surface.

"My God, it's true," Quinn whispered. "Vampires are real."

Normally Buffy would have been glad to hear him give in and start to believe, but right now her mind was screaming at her to run far away. She'd prayed never to see those things again. "Not vampires. Worse."

They were Turok Han. The uber-vamps that would have come spilling out of the Hellmouth on her own world on the First's behest had it not been for her and her ragtag army of newbie Slayers. There may be less of them this time, but she was alone too, with only a handful of regular humans and little hope that she could take them out.

"Keep shifting rock," she called over her shoulder. "I'll hold them off for as long as I can." She squared her shoulders and moved between her companions and the small army that was shuffling closer. The scythe was held tightly in her hands as she dropped into a stance that would have terrified most vamps back home. "Quinn help the others."

"I think you need my help more," he said, his voice quavering as he beheld the Turok Han that were staring at them as if deciding what would be the most interesting way to kill them. He was armed only with a small knife and a couple of stakes, none of which would do much damage here.

"Do you know how to kill these things?" Buffy demanded. "How about a useful weapon? Got one of those? Then how can you possibly help me?"

She didn't wait for an answer, couldn't, for at that moment the nearest Turok Han got bored and lunged for them. Buffy pirouetted into it's path and lopped its head off. One down, who knows how many more to go.

She ducked under a swiped arm and brought the scythe up point first into the creatures heart. "How we doing back there?"

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Wade found herself gaping as Buffy decapitated one of the grotesque looking monsters and it crumbled into dust.

Her attention was dragged back to the task before her when a rock was shoved into her hands. The cave in reached far above her head and there was little hope of clearing it all before the monsters got past Buffy. They were all going to die.

With a sudden burst of adrenaline Wade used all her strength to throw the rock at the nearest creature. It bounced off his chest harmlessly doing nothing more than drawing its attention to her. It lumbered forward, looking almost ape-like in its movements and reached a hand towards her.

The next second Buffy was there and kicked the thing so hard it flew backwards through the air, crashing into another of its kind so that they both crashed to the floor.

Wade turned her attention to Buffy whose blonde hair was flying about her face as she moved as if she were performing a choreographed routine. The smaller woman was fantastic, twisting and turning to music Wade couldn't hear, flipping with the ease of a gold medal winning gymnast, kicking and punching as though she were on some martial arts movie. And her strength was phenomenal. When she hit something it knew about it. Wade had no doubt that if Buffy had been throwing the rock it would have done more than just bounce off.

Quinn was doing little better than fending them off. Wade knew that Quinn was usually pretty good in a fight, but next to Buffy he looked slow and weak and clumsy and to the things he was fighting against he was nothing.

She watched as Buffy pushed Quinn backwards. "Help the others," she yelled before leaping back into the fray.

The order reminded Wade of what she was supposed to be doing and she hurried back to the others. They didn't appear to have done much and the rocks filling the exit still looked impenetrable. There was no way they were going to get through in time. She grabbed a rock from about head height and pulled it free, almost wrenching her arms from their sockets as the weight of it hit her. She was going to drop it, but it felt strange in her hands, not like rock at all. It was getting lighter too and bits of it were crumbling from beneath her fingertips. She gazed down and was startled to see not the black rock she expected, but the yellow of sand.

She dropped it in surprise and it shattered on the cavern floor, a small puddle of sand. In wonderment she gazed upwards at the rocks blocking their way and noticed that they too were beginning to turn yellow.

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Buffy heard Wade whisper 'Oh my..." and fought the urge to turn. She needed to keep the Turok Han back or they were all dead. Beside her Quinn continued to ignore her order to help the others where he would be far more useful. He must know that the monsters they faced were far stronger than he was and he could do little more than keep them at bay.

She stepped to his side once more and sliced another Turok Han in two. It was about the fifth time she'd had to rescue him already. Her work would be much easier if she didn't have him to worry about as well, but he didn't see it.

"Buffy, Quinn, let's go," Wade called frantically.

They couldn't have shifted all that rock already surely. Buffy pivoted between two Turok Han, planting the pointed handle in the one behind her before striking forwards with the blade, easily slicing through bone and cartillage. She took the opportunity to glance back and was amazed to see the path clear of rock and debris. It must have looked worse than it was.

She kept her body between the corridor and the Turok Han as the others made their escape. Once she was sure they were all through she turned and fled. The Turok Han weren't known for their speed so as long as they kept moving they'd be alright.

As she ran by where the ceiling had come down she skidded slightly on something distinctly grit like. A glance down showed her a great deal of sand that hadn't been there when they came in. There was also no sign of the rocks that had been there moments before. Buffy was starting to get very suspicious. The others hadn't moved the rocks after all, something else had happened.

In moments she caught up to the others. "Keep moving," she said. Further back she could hear shuffling noises as the Turok Han pursued them. Buffy knew she could save herself. It would be easy to overtake the other four and run with her Slayer speed back to the entrance to the cave and into the safety of daylight. But the others would die. The Turok Han might be slow, but her friends would need to stop and climb back up the rope. She'd have to slow down the monsters on their trail.

She dropped back a little and waited. She could make out shapes moving towards her, the flickering light of the corridor illuminating them clearly to her enhanced vision. They might not be moving all that quickly, but they loped along consistently, never pausing, never tiring.

As they got closer Buffy crouched until just the right moment. She leapt, high into the air, turning as she did so her legs spun out towards the Turok Han and then she landed neatly back on the ground.

She ran, leaving behind a pile of prehistoric vampires that should have known better and just stayed dead. They'd be back on their feet in moments, but she'd delayed them. Hopefully it would be enough.

She caught up with the others as Wade was climbing up the rope. She slammed the door behind her and threw her weight against it. Quinn joined her a moment later as Wade pulled herself onto the upper level. Oz was hot on her heels.

"You go next," Quinn said. He was slightly breathless from running all the way here.

Buffy ignored him. From the other side of the door she could hear the sounds of the Turok Han approaching. In moments they would start trying to get through the door.

By the time Wade helped Oz over the ege of the drop Larry was already pulling himself up the rope. Buffy felt something impact the door.

"Go," Quinn said urgently.

"Don't be an idiot," Buffy said impatiently. "I'm far more capable of holding them back than you are." She grabbed his arm and pushed him towards the others.

He stumbled slightly and turned to glare at her. Larry was just reaching the top of the rope.

"Go on," she said.

Quinn ran to the rope and began hoisting himself up it even as a hand punched through the wood behind Buffy. Hands reached down from above to help him. With his height he was up in seconds.

"Come on," Wade called.

Buffy ducked as another fist came through the door where her head had been moments before. She felt some of her hair snag on something and ruthlessly pulled it away, ignoring the sting in her scalp. "Get back," she called up to the others.

Oz and Larry stepped away from the edge quickly, pulling Wade and Quinn with them.

Buffy took a deep breath and ran three steps forward before leaping as high and as far as she possibly could.

She landed before her friends. "Keep moving," she snapped as the door behind them burst open. "They can do that too."

It was all the encouragement they needed to start running once more. Buffy almost cried in relief when she saw daylight ahead. They would soon be safe.

They ran past flickering torches and burst into the open air just as the Turok Han became visible at the other end of the cave.

"Stop," Buffy called to the others. "They won't come out into the daylight, it affects them the same as regular vamps."

Her friends collapsed around her, Wade was clutching a stitch in her side and the three men were clearly out of breath. Buffy's own constitution allowed her to breathe easily even after all that exertion.

"So... they are... vampires," Quinn said, dragging in lungfuls of air.

"Kinda," Buffy said. "They're like the caveman variety."

"So we're... safe?" Wade panted.

Buffy sighed. The Turok Han were just visible in the mouth of the cave. They didn't dare come any further out, just stayed clinging to the shadows for whatever protection they offered from the 

harmful sun. "We can't just leave them here. They're awake now. As soon as it gets dark they'll leave the shelter of the cave and go looking for something to eat."

Around her the others were starting to straighten up as they caught their breath.

"Is there anything we can actually do?" Larry demanded. "'Cause it looks to me like staying here will just get us first place on the menu."

Buffy was about to insist they at least try something when Oz's voice said softly, "Does anyone else smell that?"

Buffy sniffed and found that she too could smell something coming from the cave. It was a distinctive smell, but she couldn't quite place it.

From the corner of her eye she saw Quinn pale significantly. "Hoof it," he yelled hoarsely.

The adrenaline was still pumping through their bodies from their earlier flight as they each turned and fled for the van sitting about fifty yards away.

They almost didn't make it. The ground shook as the cave exploded. Bits of debris rained down upon them, some of it still burning as the concussion knocked them to the ground.

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A/N: There you go Turok Han. Thanks again to all those who reviewed and those who helped me with the name, especially those I forgot to thank last time, namely **Allen Pitt** and **Cylon1.**

Can't promise the next update will be next sunday, but I will try my best. Unfortunately I have a busy week at work ahead of me, as well as dance classes starting up again and the kids' drama group I volunteer with are meeting to discuss what play they do next. Joy!

Please don't forget to review and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.

Nat.


	7. The Witch

Chapter 7.

It was dusk when they returned to the library and Buffy's mind was still awhirl. Nothing made sense apart from the scythe she still held tightly in one hand.

She barely listened as her companions told the story to those that had stayed behind, including a newly arrived Angel. The questions were going around and around in her head and try as she might she could think of no answer. How had the stones turned to sand? Had the witch that designed the trap not been able to decide if she should kill the intruders or merely frighten them or had something or someone else been responsible? If it was the former then why go to all that trouble just to let them out anyway and if it was the latter, who or what had done it? Why had the cave exploded? What was the point of it all?

"You seem distracted," Angel noted quietly. When he had entered Buffy had been pleased that he immediately sat at her side and found his presence comforting as she worked through her confusion.

"It just doesn't make sense," Buffy said in frustration. "If this witch really wanted to end the Slayer line why did she let us walk away and if it wasn't her who was it? Do you know anyone who might have that kind of power?"

Angel shook his head.

"See, I do, but there was no way it was her, because your version of her doesn't even practice magic," Buffy gave Willow a significant look.

"Me?" Willow squeaked.

"In my world, you're my big guns," Buffy said with a gentle smile. "When things get really bad we turn to you to work the major world saving mojo."

"Oh," Willow said meekly.

"I think we can rule out Ms Rosenberg," Arturo said briskly.

"I concur," said Giles. "It also seems unlikely that this was the work of the witch that laid the trap in the first place."

"Who then?" Larry demanded. "Who has that kind of power, would know we were there and would go to all that trouble for us?"

"I would," Willow said clearly.

"Sweetie, you couldn't have done it," Oz said gently.

But Willow was looking over his shoulder. Her eyes were wide and her skin pale. She raised one hand and pointed towards the doors.

Buffy twisted around in her seat to see what the redhead was looking at. She stared, not believing her eyes. Willow was staring... at Willow.

She turned back to the woman seated beside Oz and blinked furiously. Willow there and Willow by the door. How was that possible? Buffy's mind spun into hyper drive. She stood, grasping the scythe tightly.

"Thank God I've found you," Willow said happily, smiling at Buffy.

That was the last thing Buffy had been expecting her to say. She took a step forward, making sure she was between the new Willow and the others. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Buff," Willow said. "You know, your best friend."

"That's not possible," Quinn objected. "Even if you had the ability to slide, and if you did I'm sure Buffy would have mentioned it by now, you couldn't have followed us to this exact world."

"It was difficult," Willow admitted. "But not impossible. At first I tried to trace Buffy, but she has doubles scattered across realities. Then I realised that Dawn was pretty unique so I tracked her to this world and then went looking for Buffy. It was just lucky that Sarah overheard you talking about parallel worlds before you jumped into the portal or I might never have found you."

Buffy remembered talking to Quinn earlier in the day. She'd told him that Willow could do anything with magic that he could do with science, that Willow could do things with magic that _weren't possible_ with science. "Will?"

Willow grinned at her. "If it helps... I once covered for you so you could go to a frat party with Cordelia of all people and you nearly got eaten by a giant snake. I had a boyfriend called Malcolm and you and Xander thought he was an axe-murdering psycho looney, turned out he was actually a demon I accidentally released from a book. I had a girlfriend named Tara whose death sent me slightly loco. How am I doing so far?"

"Will!" Buffy exclaimed, dropping the scythe on the table and running forward. She stopped when Willow held up her hands.

"No hugs, sorry. I'm here in my astral form."

"Which makes you non-corporeal, like the First," said Buffy. She couldn't believe that Willow was actually here and everything made so much sense now. "So that was you that helped us out back at the cave. You turned the rocks to sand and then blew the place up. How'd you do that anyway?"

"Oh, it was a simple dissolving spell and then I released natural gas deposits into the cave once I was sure you'd make it out, it took a few minutes to build up and then... boom! I would have shown myself, but I thought that might have been a bit of a distraction at the time." Willow studied her friend for a long moment. "Sarah told us what happened. Are you alright?"

"Apart from the fact that I'm told there's almost no chance of getting home and Dawn's been kidnapped yet again, yeah," Buffy said.

Willow shifted nervously. "About that... We watched the hotel's security tapes and those demons that took Dawn are Glory's old minions."

"I know," Buffy assured her.

"It gets worse, though," said Willow anxiously. "They actually said they were taking her to Glory. We were a bit surprised about that until Sarah told us what she'd overheard you and your new friends talking about."

It wasn't exactly new information, but it did confirm that some version of Glory was involved in all this, or at least that the demons had been expecting her to be here.

"I saw Dawn, briefly, before coming here, but I couldn't stop to chat and she didn't see me," Willow continued. "She wasn't alone. I didn't see Glory, but there were other demons there. She looked OK," she added quickly on seeing Buffy's concerned look. "I don't think they're going to hurt her."

"Not yet, anyway," Buffy frowned. "What are they waiting for?"

"If they are working for Glory and she's anything like the Glory we knew, then she's probably obsessed with the idea of going home," Willow pointed out.

"True," Buffy agreed. "But that ritual could only work in a specific time and place. What's she gonna do? Wait thousands of years for the circumstances to be right again?" Buffy glared at a spot on the floor for a long moment. "Feel up to a little spy work?"

"Ooh! Rosenberg. Willow Rosenberg," the redhead giggled. "Can do. You want me to spy on Glory, see if I can find out her dastardly plans while hiding right under her nose?"

"It worked for the First," Buffy said wryly, remembering Eve, a potential who was killed just when she thought she'd reached safety and whose image was used by the First to spy on Buffy and her friends.

A throat being cleared garnered their attention.

Buffy turned to stare at the other occupants of the room, having nearly forgotten they were there. The sliders seemed fairly unconcerned by the new arrival, having apparently gotten used to doppelgangers, but the natives were understandably a bit alarmed at the new addition. Native-Willow in particular seemed to be having a hard time. Her eyes were as round as Buffy had ever seen them and her mouth was opening and closing as if she were trying to work up the nerve to say something. For her part, witchy-Willow was smiling easily at their audience, her way of putting people at their ease and trying to look nonchalant. It might have fooled the others, but Buffy knew her well enough to know that inside she was as worked up as her counterpart.

"Am I to understand that you intend to send Miss Rosenberg to spy on our enemies?" Arturo said, his lips curling in distaste at the idea. "Have you any idea how dangerous that might be? You yourself seem to believe that this woman is a God and..."

He trailed off as a sudden breeze swept the room. Buffy didn't need to look back to know that Willow had transformed into her 'Goddess' look with the long incandescently white hair and glowing skin. "I can take care of myself, thanks," she intoned in the slightly echoing voice that accompanied the transformation. There was a slight hint of irritation in her tone, the one Buffy usually only heard when someone was seriously underestimating her friend as sweet little Willow instead of bad ass Witchy Will.

"She's non-corporeal," Buffy explained, waving a hand behind her at where she guessed Willow to be. "Glory couldn't touch her even if she was found, besides in her astral form Willow can make herself completely invisible. That's why we didn't see her in the cave."

"Not to mention the fact that I am a witch," Willow said and her voice had returned to normal apart from the slightly irritated tone to it. "And a powerful one at that. My power nearly destroyed our world and it was my spell that activated all the potentials back home."

Buffy's brow furrowed as a thought struck her. "I don't suppose you'd be up to a repeat performance would you?" she asked, turning back to her friend.

Willow grinned. "Sure, I'll give it a go. I just need the Slayer of this world."

"Ah," Buffy's face fell. "Is that really important?"

"It's the only way I can figure to do it," Willow shrugged. "That's how I did it the first time. I basically channelled the power through the scythe into you and then from you to all the other girls. Which has turned out to be a bit of a problem really."

"Problem?" Buffy demanded. "There's a problem?"

Willow looked away. A sure sign that something was very wrong and she didn't really want to tell Buffy about it. "It's like a link in the chain is missing," she said at last. "If you had died, the line still would have passed to another girl and the spell would have gone through her, but you didn't die, you were just gone and now..."

"Now..." Buffy prompted.

"The girls are starting to lose their powers," Willow said quickly. "Not all at once, but it's happening. First of all it was Gwyn, you know that Welsh girl. We thought it was just a fluke, but then we started getting reports from all over the world that girls were reverting back to normal."

"Oh no," Buffy whispered. Not only would this world not be able to run their version of the spell through her unless she decided to stay forever, but her own world was losing Slayers and would continue to do so until she got home, which from what Quinn had told her was virtually impossible. "What about Faith?"

"Well, we don't know," Willow admitted. "I mean, she won't lose her powers, because she was a Slayer before the spell, but we don't know where she is, or even if she's still alive. She was in Russia with Robin and a few new girls, but we lost contact. Even if we found her I don't know if I could run the spell through her until every one of the newbie Slayers loses her powers. I've got everyone researching that at the moment." She paused. "We had to abandon LA. We were six Slayers down and didn't know when we might lose more. I thought it best that we get out of there while we could."

Buffy nodded absently. "You made the right decision."

"So far the demons aren't aware of what's happening, but I don't know how long we can keep it from them. And when they figure it out..."

"They'll want revenge," Buffy finished. "We've had them on the defensive for the last year and they don't like it. They'll take advantage of our weakness." She shook her head as if to clear it of the unpleasant thoughts swirling within. "Keep me posted."

"Will do." Willow was scrutinising the people behind Buffy. "Wow."

Buffy grinned. "I know."

"Hey, Giles. And look, it's Jenny and Oz! And other me! This is so cool," Willow said excitedly. "Wait, where's alternate Xander?"

"He died," Buffy said sadly. "You have no idea how wrong a world without Xander can be."

"I think I can guess," Willow said. She glanced at the people she didn't know. "Is she the Slayer?"

Buffy glanced up to see Willow pointing at Wade. "No, she's one of the people I came here with, though she's kinda plucky. If her world had Slayers I have no doubt she would have at least been a potential. This world's Slayer line was broken. There hasn't been a Slayer for hundreds of years."

Willow gulped. "Then I can't do the spell. I need an active Slayer to channel it through and unless you plan on staying..."

"I know. How about activating a single Slayer? Can you do that?"

"I don't know..." Willow trailed off thoughtfully. "It might be possible. I'll get the girls looking into it. It's probably best to keep them busy, especially the ones who can't go out patrolling at the moment."

"I'll see about locating a potential just in case. I could certainly use the help. This world needs a Slayer."

"If anyone can fix it you can," Willow said with a small smile. "Listen Buff, I need to get back. I'll be by later tonight to spy on Glory and Dawn before I check in with you."

"Thanks," Buffy said gratefully. "See if you can find out where they are."

"Sure thing."

Willow faded from sight until Buffy could no longer make her out.

"That was... wow," native-Willow said softly. "She's me... but not me."

"That's Will," Buffy said. "My big guns."

"Yes, well, as illuminating as that was, we have work to do," said Giles pointedly.

Angel was beside Buffy an instant later. "We could go patrolling together," he suggested lightly.

Buffy smiled warmly. "As much as I'd enjoy that I think one of us needs to stay here and keep an eye on things. Just in case. Tell you what, I'm in need of some violence therapy so I'll take the first turn about town. I'll be back in an hour or so and you can go."

"Sounds fair," Angel agreed. "I'll walk you out."

The moment they were through the double doors Angel reached down and clasped her hand in his. Buffy studied their joined hands for a moment before glancing up. Angel was staring ahead, as if unaware of her scrutiny, his face as devoid of emotion as ever. Buffy squeezed his hand.

Once outside they stopped, hands still joined and turned to one another. Buffy felt that she could lose herself in his eyes, perfectly content just to stand here for the rest of her life.

"I'm not getting in the middle of anything am I?" Angel asked her. "You and Quinn seem... close."

Buffy almost grinned at his obvious jealousy. He'd never been very good at hiding it. "I barely know him," she pointed out. "We met just the other night. Four nights ago in fact."

"So he wouldn't mind if I kissed you?"

"He might," Buffy shrugged. "But I wouldn't let that stop you."

It was some minutes before she finally pulled away and melted into the night.

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"Five vampires," Buffy announced triumphantly. "And one weird demonny thing that burst into flames when I killed it. Beat that."

"Hmm, quite the challenge," Angel murmured.

"You have one hour," Buffy told him.

Angel bent down and kissed her swiftly. "For luck," he said quietly before drawing away.

Buffy turned to face the others as he left. Willow and Wade were both smiling gently, but they were the only ones. Everyone else viewed them dispassionately apart from Jenny who appeared worried and Quinn who had looked away wearing a hurt expression. Buffy knew she would have to talk to him eventually, but honestly didn't know what to say.

She listened dispassionately as Giles filled her in on what they'd done during the day while she'd been at the cave. Despite a day spent in study they'd found virtually nothing that could help them discover Glory's plans. Arturo in particular seemed rather put out by their lack of knowledge as he stomped into the stacks to look for more books.

"Don't mind him," Willow whispered. "He's just had a nasty shock is all."

Buffy turned to her with raised eyebrows.

"It was other me," Willow explained. "When she did that transformy thing, well he didn't have any explanation for it. I think he's feeling like his whole world is askew. Poor guy." She giggled. "You should have heard him ranting right after you left."

Buffy smirked. She could well imagine.

Willow scooted closer and lowered her voice. "Can I ask you about other me?"

Buffy nodded, wondering what she could possibly want to know.

"When she was trying to prove who she was she mentioned a... a girlfriend." Willow pulled a face.

"Oh. Well yeah, she's had a couple. There was Tara first and then Kennedy – oh what fun _that_ was."

"But you said she and Oz were together in High School."

"I did," Buffy agreed. "And they were. Like I said it didn't work out because he was a werewolf. When he left she was inconsolable for a long time, but eventually she found Tara and she was happy again."

Willow swallowed nervously and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's just hard to imagine I could be..." she glanced around and lowered her voice still further. "Gay."

"I always felt it was less about the gender and more about the person for her," Buffy said thoughtfully. "She loved both Oz and Tara. If he'd stayed maybe they'd still be together and she'd have been happy with him too, it just didn't work out that way. It might also explain why things with Kennedy didn't work out. Girl was a complete control freak. Willow never loved her, it was just convenient for a time while things were so bad."

"She's so pretty," Willow said with an odd note in her voice. "And way more confident than me. I wish I could be like that, pretty and confident and the sort of person people can turn to when they've got a problem and know that it'll be sorted out."

From anyone else this would have sounded like they were fishing for compliments, but Buffy knew Willow had always had a serious self esteem issue. "Hey," she said disbelievingly. "What makes you think you're not like that? OK, so your confidence could do with some work and you may not be a witch, but you have your own abilities that make you just as special. You remind me of her when we first met. She wasn't a witch then, but she was the best friend anyone could ask for. So you can't wave your hand and make everything better, but Oz certainly doesn't think you're useless. He loves you for you and not for what you can do for him. And as for being pretty... you're every bit as pretty as she is. She might style her hair differently and wear different clothes and make up, but those are all superficial things. They don't matter. What matters is the sort of person you are and _you_ are amazing."

Willow smiled at her shyly. "I sure could have used a friend like you back in High School."

And that was the difference, Buffy suddenly realised. She'd always wondered what sort of an impact she'd had on her friends lives besides the horrifying danger and the long nights of research and now she could see it at least in Willow's case. This girl, right in front of her, was Willow as she had been without Buffy in her life. It was Buffy that had brought out the confidence in her to date a guitarist and begin studying witchcraft and it was for Buffy that Willow had attempted her very first spell.

It worked both ways, Buffy realised. Before moving to Sunnydale she'd been a horrifyingly shallow girl. OK, so her sudden transformation might have had something to do with the discovery that she was a Slayer, but a lot of it came from Willow and Giles. They'd taught her to be serious when necessary and to think things through before leaping into the fray. From Willow in particular she had 

learnt how to be a good friend and how to care so deeply for a person that she could sacrifice her life for theirs. It wasn't just them either. Xander, too, had had an influence on her life. He'd shown her how to find the humour in almost every situation and how to be brave when everything was against you.

Angel returned a while later and quietly informed her that while he'd matched her vampire count he hadn't been able to find any 'weird demonny things.' Buff had smiled sweetly and told him that he'd have to give her some kind of reward.

They'd been sitting and researching anything that could help Glory get home, but to no avail. Buffy, not the most patient person under any circumstances, was on the verge of going out to patrol again, even as she noticed most of her friends were beginning to droop from a long day of either hitting the books or driving about the countryside and facing Turok Han. Anything to relieve the boredom.

Buffy was startled out of her reverie by a bang outside. She sat up straight, straining her ears for any further sound. Beside her Angel tensed and glanced towards the doors.

There were hushed voices and footsteps, probably undetectable to most people, but Buffy could just about make them out. She stood and reached across the table to retrieve the scythe, ignoring the startled looks of those who didn't have her advantages. Angel was hurriedly making his way into the office where Giles kept most of his weapons.

The doors flew open with such force that they banged on the walls. Six demons walked in, of a breed Buffy didn't recognise. They were vaguely human shaped with greenish blue skin and horns shaped like antlers. Their faces looked flat, as if they'd run into a brick wall and they all towered far over Buffy, not that she'd ever let that stop her and they seemed almost transparent. The scent of salt water came to her nostrils.

She jumped up on the table and flipped off the other side, the scythe held dangerously in both hands. She felt Angel's presence at her side and knew he was ready to back her up.

"They're Gree," Giles called out. "Demons summoned from the ocean to obey the commands of the one who called them." He was off to one side clutching a sword and holding Jenny behind him. Buffy was dismayed to see that although he held the sword competently he seemed quite nervous at the idea of actually using it. This Giles apparently didn't see much action.

"What are your orders?" Angel demanded as Quinn, Rembrandt, Larry and Oz came forward to flank them. Buffy noted that Arturo was holding back Wade and Willow and in a way felt grateful. None of them exactly had the spirit of a warrior though she had no doubt all three would gladly jump in if necessary.

"Our mistress commands us to get the device that opens the portal," one of the Gree intoned in a voice that sounded oddly musical.

"Why does she want that?" Quinn said, one hand straying unconsciously to the pocket where he kept the timer.

"We do not know. Give it to us," the Gree said.

"Who is your mistress?" Arturo called.

"The great Goddess," the Gree replied dispassionately. "She who shines like the sun on water."

"Glory," Buffy muttered. She should have known.

The Gree hissed at her. "Do not speak Her name, mortal."

"Glory, Glory, Glory," Buffy said in a bored tone.

"That is a Holy name," the Gree said angrily.

"And all men fear to speak it, I know," Buffy shrugged. "And I'll say it again. Glory."

"Your death will be slow and painful," the Gree said. "Perhaps we will spare you if you hand the device to us."

"Really?" Buffy said, sounding hopeful. "'Cos the bad guys usually _say_ that and then they try to kill me anyway. Of course that might just be because I annoy the Hell out of them."

The Gree held out its hand. It moved gracefully, reminding her that they were water demons.

Buffy stepped forward as if to make the exchange. She stopped right in front of him and paused gazing up at his face. "I give it to you and you let us go," she said forcing an uncertain quaver into her voice.

"Yes."

Buffy reached a hand into the bag pocket of her jeans and removed the stake she'd stashed there. In a swift motion she slapped it into his outstretched hand and waited for him to inspect the object. Then she swung the scythe.

It caught him in the chest and Buffy jumped back to avoid any reflex attack he might make.

He merely stared at the wound as what looked like water gushed out. He looked from the wound to her face seemingly shocked that she had done this to him.

Sploosh!

It was like the wound had caused all his molecules to separate and what was left literally splashed on the ground in a huge puddle.

"Woah," Buffy said slowly. "They're actually _made_ of water."

And she ducked as a fist blew over her head.

She wasn't surprised at how quickly they moved given the unnatural grace they'd exhibited earlier. She and Angel should still be quick enough to take them out, especially as all it took was a slash across the chest, but the others would probably find themselves hopelessly outmatched.

Angel was there, fighting by her side and even though he wasn't the Angel she knew they still worked so well together. The others were there too, on the outside of the fight, jumping in where they could, but it was clear the demons were moving too fast for them to actually land a blow.

Angel cut the arm off one of the Gree and it too collapsed into a puddle on the floor. Buffy had to watch her footing as the floor was becoming increasingly slippery. Back in the study area Rembrandt was trying to keep one of the Gree from Wade when Willow jumped on its back.

"I'm thinking Glory didn't really think this one through," Buffy said as she dodged one of the Gree's antlers. Two of the demons were bent over and using their horns like bulls in an arena.

"Either that or she didn't think they'd be coming up against such a challenge," Angel grimaced. He dropped to the floor at Buffy's nod and she kicked over his head. Her foot penetrated the Gree's skin – for lack of a better word – and a moment later it too was a mess on the floor. "Not a mistake she'll make again after these boys don't report back."

Buffy shrugged. "I'm sure the two that kidnapped Dawn have told her all about me, but then she never took me all that seriously on a world where Slayers still existed. She probably thinks I'm just a minor nuisance." She sighed heavily. "I miss my reputation."

By this time there was only one Gree left. Buffy and Angel converged on it, both striking at the same instant, Angel aiming low at it's legs and Buffy jumping high to aim the pointed handle at the things head.

"Back on my world, everyone's heard my name," Buffy griped. "I've had demons literally _run_ from me when they find out who I am. Even _Dracula_ had heard of me. But here? It's like starting over from the beginning. The demons just don't appreciate that they should be terrified of me."

"I feel your pain," Angel said with a straight face.

Buffy elbowed him. "Everyone OK?"

It seemed everyone had got off mostly intact. Giles was nursing a cut on his head and Willow seemed to have shocked herself into a stupor with her own bravery, but otherwise no harm done. The real casualty was the floor. Buffy didn't even want to think about the probable water damage. She took a moment to wonder when she'd become so domestic.

"Why would they want the timer?" Rembrandt asked Quinn.

Quinn shrugged.

"Well, obviously that's the answer we've been looking for all day," Wade said impatiently. "After looking through all these books we've gotten nowhere on finding out how this Glory's going to get home. She must be planning on using the timer."

Buffy's heart sank. "And she'll use Dawn to make sure she comes out in the right place."

"How did they know we were here?" Arturo asked, glancing around as if someone should be looking guilty.

"Most of the demon population knows we operate out of this library," said Angel. "And it stands to reason that when on a new world you'd seek out anyone who could help you."

"Looks like I was too late."

Buffy glanced up to see witchy-Willow standing over the large puddle on the floor. She muttered a few words and steam began to rise. Moments later the floor was completely dry.

"I came back to take a look around Glory's hideout when I heard her talking about getting some kind of machine that opens the portals between dimensions. I assumed that was something you had. She was ranting about some minions she'd sent to retrieve it." Willow looked around. "Looks like I missed a fight."

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A/N: Sorry it's been so long folks. I'm just getting into my busy time of year, which goes from now, right through to November (not counting the summer holidays.) I'll try not to leave it so long next time, but I can't make promises. Between work, dance classes, choreography and a flame I really haven't had the motivation necessary lately. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into it now.

Thanks for your patience.

Nat.


	8. The Potential

Chapter 8.

Buffy awoke the next morning with a fuzzy brain and a crick in her neck. It took her a long moment to realise she was slumped over a desk in the library and that the pages of the book she had been reading where stuck to her face. Thankfully she hadn't drooled. That was a transgression Giles would never forgive her for.

Sunlight was streaming through the windows as Buffy stretched, wondering what had woken her.

A bell rang loudly out in the corridor. There was a sudden influx of chirpy voices and somewhere nearby a door slammed. Someone was yelling although Buffy couldn't make out the words. What was going on?

Around her the others were starting to wake up. Willow gave her a tired smile as she wiped her face. "I hate falling asleep at school."

Buffy grimaced. Of course, she'd been so wrapped up in being back at the library she'd forgotten it was part of the High School. The noises outside were the students heading towards their first class.

Giles stormed out of his small office. "Those insufferable twits!"

Buffy could count on one hand the amount of times her Giles had got that irate and every single one of them was when the Council refused to be forth coming. Judging by the startled look on Jenny's face this Giles wasn't any more prone to outbursts than his counterpart.

"They absolutely refuse to co-operate," he said, throwing his hands up in the air. "They seem to think there's no reason to look into it unless I give them a reason why they should."

"Look into what?" Jenny had risen and was rubbing his back soothingly.

"Buffy and Willow's alternate mentioned locating a potential Slayer," Giles said rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses. "I thought I would hurry that along, but the Council will not help unless I tell them why I want the information and I cannot reveal that there is a Slayer here who has retrieved the scythe and that we want to restart the Slayer line, because we all know that they would be here in a moment to destroy all our plans."

Buffy found she couldn't fault his reasoning. She found her own mind returning to the problem of finding a potential and wondered if girls that were potentials on her world would be here as well.

"My first thought is Faith, or even Kendra, but I think they'd be too old by now to get Called. Not to mention being too far away. By the time we found them and got them here it would be too late, not to mention needing to convince them over the phone that we're not a load of crazy people. We need to find someone closer to home. There was this girl, back on my world, who went to school here. Her name was Amanda... something."

Willow perked up. "I'll check the school records, see if I can find her."

Buffy got up and moved to sit by her at the computer. "Don't you have a job to go to?" she asked. "Your boss must be pretty lenient if he lets you stay here all hours."

"We're called a vigilante group or a shadow organisation because we're not part of the military," Willow explained. "But that's only because the government doesn't like to admit that they can't handle it. My boss knows that I'm involved with things here and as long as I call in and let him know what's going on he's OK with it. I'll check in with him later."

"Oh." Buffy concentrated on the screen as a few pictures flashed up. "There, that's her," she said, pointing.

Willow opened the file. "Amanda Collins. Average student. She's been suspended three times for fighting and some of her teachers have suggested she go into counselling for her violent tendencies. Is this really the sort of girl we want?"

"Amanda's not all bad," Buffy assured her. "She just needs a focus for all her aggression. We can give her that. There have been those that accused me of having 'violent tendencies.'"

"Really?" Willow said with a look of innocent surprise.

Buffy nudged her gently. "Print off her schedule."

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Quinn found himself staring – again. He couldn't help it. Every few minutes his eyes would be drawn to her. It wasn't just because she was beautiful, though she certainly was. No, it had more to do with the fact that she positively _glowed_ with an inner light. Her energy, her vivaciousness positively dazzled him and he found himself drawn to her. She was strong, he'd seen proof of that, and he knew most men would be intimidated by it, but he knew what it was like to have others feel awkward around him for something he couldn't control. She was intelligent too underneath her Californian girl sunny disposition and vapid blonde act and funny in her own way.

She was an amazing woman, he'd come to realise that over the last few days and not just because she could catch crossbow bolts out of the air or easily jump twice his height or beat the crap out of terrifying monsters, but because she handled it with a grace that made it look so easy.

He knew from some of her stories that it hadn't always been that way. He'd deduced that there had been some awfully hard times behind her, yet she was still fighting, still laughing and living her life. She truly was amazing.

He found himself daydreaming, not for the first time, imagining what it would be like if she decided to keep sliding with them. He'd have to modulate the timer to account for the extra mass passing through the vortex regularly, but it should be manageable, even if they brought Dawn along as well.

They could really use someone like Buffy along. Not just for her powers, but for her ability to think under pressure and laugh in the face of danger. He was convinced they could learn a lot from her.

He was staring _again_. Fortunately no one had spotted him mooning like a love-struck school boy. Scratch that. Rembrandt was looking at him with that knowing look in his eye. If anyone could see how he felt it would be Rembrandt.

"She's pretty," Rembrandt said blandly.

Quinn nodded.

"You sure you know what you're doing? We're leaving in less than five days and she may choose not to come with us."

"I know, Remmy," Quinn said quietly.

"And then there's that guy, Angel," Rembrandt was watching him carefully. "I don't know the details, but there seems to be something going on between them."

"She just met him, same as she did us."

"Ah, but these are her friends," Rembrandt pointed out. "Who's to say she didn't know him back on her world too?"

Quinn sighed and rested his head on the wall behind him. "What are you trying to say?"

"Look, Q-Ball, it may be none of my business, but I just want you to be careful. Even if she does decide to come with us, do you really think it's a good idea? Things could go badly and we can't afford to deal with that during a slide."

"It's the same thing with Wade all over again," Quinn said morosely. "You think I should just forget about her?"

Rembrandt patted his arm. "I don't know anything about that. I'm just giving you some friendly advice. What you do with it is up to you."

Quinn turned his gaze back to Buffy. Rembrandt had raised some valid points. What _was_ between Buffy and Angel? He knew the dark man was a vampire, shouldn't that make them mortal enemies or something, but they acted friendly towards one another. And then there was that kiss. True, it hadn't been overly passionate, but it was far from the platonic peck on the cheek he would have preferred to see.

They'd worked so well together in the fight against the Gree as if all their moves were pre planned. On one occasion they had just looked at one another and it was as though something had passed between them. Angel had ducked even as Buffy swung her scythe. A moment later and he could have had his head chopped off, but the move had come off smoothly, almost rehearsed, but he knew that wasn't possible. Quinn couldn't discount the fact that Buffy had worked extensively with Angel's double back on her own world.

She was coming over and Rembrandt was leaving to give them some privacy. She slid down the wall to sit next to him, staring out over the too quiet library.

"I always loved this room," Buffy said, her eyes far away. "I never was one for books, but it was like our retreat away from the world. Students rarely came in here and when they did I think they were so intimidated by us that they left almost straight away." She snorted. "I remember sitting in here, trying to work out some end of the world scenario when these kids came in, looking for books. It threw us all for a loop. We just stared at them like they were aliens or something. Never thought I'd miss a library of all places. We blew it up, along with the rest of the school the day we graduated. Not for fun," she added quickly. "There was a... thing."

Quinn was silent for a moment, trying to work out if she was serious or not. Her High School days certainly sounded more interesting than his were. But then, he'd always been a loner. Most of the other kids avoided him, not comfortable around someone who had skipped several grades and was a lot smarter than they were.

"Was Angel there?"

Beside him Buffy tensed. "Yes."

"You and he..." Quinn found he was unable to finish that sentence.

"We were lovers," Buffy said softly.

"Oh." He ignored the twinge of hurt in his chest as he wondered how that had come to be, with him a vampire and her a Slayer.

"They told you about his soul, right? We were like Romeo and Juliet." There was an odd catch to her voice. "It wasn't the smoothest of relationships, between him turning evil, me having to kill him and then him dumping me in a sewer."

"Um." Quinn had no idea what to say to that.

"He may not be the Angel I knew, but when I see him I feel just like I did back then," she sighed morosely. "I've had other relationships, but I've never loved anyone the way I did him. There was so much fire between us."

Quinn had the feeling she was only partially aware he was there. "I thought you and I..."

She turned her head to look at him. "You're a nice guy, Quinn and if I were a nice normal girl then I would love to see what could happen between us. But I'm not normal. Never was. And I've been with nice guys before and it doesn't work for me. The last nice guy I was with I drove away because I couldn't connect with him the way I did with Angel." She smiled ruefully. "You know, Dawn would be yelling at me right now. She always says I'm a sucker for the guys that are going to cause me pain. She doesn't understand the _fire_ that comes with that sort of relationship and it might sound crazy, but I've always felt that to keep that passion you need the pain. I guess I need that little bit of evil in my man."

"Bad boys," Quinn said. Why did they always go for the bad boys over him? "Who says I can't be bad?"

Buffy's smile was bittersweet. "I may have only known you for a few days, but I already know that you're a good man. And that's not a bad thing."

Quinn cleared his throat. "So will you stay here, to be with Angel?"

Buffy looked away. "Honestly, I don't know what I'm going to do yet. If we don't find Dawn by the time your little counter thingy gets to zero it all becomes pretty redundant anyway. I won't leave her behind. But me and Angel? Even if I were to stay, there's no future there for me. No matter how much I love him it just wouldn't work. If we're together there's too big a risk he could lose his soul again and then I'd have to kill him. I don't know if I could do that again."

Quinn sensed there was a lot more to the situation than she was saying, but didn't want to pry. She may not have out and out rejected him, but she was making it pretty clear it was unlikely to happen and with the future so uncertain it was probably best to give her some space for now. It hurt, knowing that he came second to a vampire, especially one she admitted she had no future with.

He almost didn't realise when Buffy laid a gentle hand on his shoulder before standing and returning to where Larry was giving Wade some instruction with the crossbow. He watched her walk away.

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Angel grudgingly rose from his bed. It was still light outside and normally he'd stay tucked away until darkness fell, but for the last few days he'd been having a recurring dream that was starting to drive him crazy. It was always completely dark in the dream, before faces swam before him and a voice – his voice – filled his ears, whispering to him. It wasn't exactly a bad dream, but disturbing enough in its own way. Especially as whoever it was whispering to him was incapable of finishing a sentence.

That's all the dream was; disjointed words and abstract faces and all the while a sense of peace washed over him. But he wasn't meant to feel peace was he? Peace could lead to happiness and happiness led to Angelus and he would _never _allow himself to revert to the monster he had been.

He suspected his dreams had something to do with Buffy. They'd started just after he met her and he was sure the voice he heard right at the end was hers. The one that told him to close his eyes so tearfully that he would jerk awake every time and look for her, to offer her comfort.

Was someone trying to warn him away from her? He'd heard of people having visions from the Powers, was this one of them? Were they reminding him what the price of contentment would be?

He'd ponder these thoughts every day while he waited for the sun to sink below the horizon and each time he left his small apartment he would promise himself that he would keep his distance. He would be polite, friendly even, but nothing more.

Then he'd see her again and his resolve crumbled. He longed to see her smile, yet was infinitely jealous if anyone other than himself made it happen. He yearned for her touch, her kiss. More than anything he wanted to keep her safe from harm, but he knew he never could. She was the Slayer and could take care of herself. More than that, it was her place to be in harms way.

He would speak to her later, tell her nothing could happen. She would understand. She might be leaving in a few days anyway. He refused to acknowledge the pain that thought brought him.

It was barely noon. With a frustrated growl he headed back towards his bed.

He dreamed.

"_In the darkness... Cold and alone...I was an idiot... All the pain I caused... Don't make the same mistakes I made... have to go alone... you want me to give up everything... I've never loved anyone before... It's enough... two hundred and fifty years...heart, body and soul, especially soul... I've lost my chance... You're in for a ride... I did what I had to do..."_

"_Close your eyes."_

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"Professor Arturo?" Buffy said with feigned meekness. "Can I have a word?"

She'd decided that her sweet, innocent girl act was probably the best way to get through to the Professor. She'd spent less time with him than any of the others and wasn't really sure how he'd react at any given moment. It was time to rectify that, especially if they might soon be going into battle together and there was a topic she was keen to bring up.

Surprisingly he seemed genuinely pleased to be speaking to her. His usually arrogant smirk was replaced with a fatherly smile that made him seem much more... human.

"Yes, Miss Summers," he said pleasantly.

"I've been thinking," Buffy began, wondering what could have caused such a change in the normally dour man. "Quinn told me there was only a small possibility of ever finding my world again, is that right?"

"Unfortunately there are potentially millions of parallel Earths," Arturo said. Buffy could easily picture him standing before a class, lecturing, passing on his knowledge of things she would never begin to understand. "We have no way to control the slide and have no idea where we will end up. Every time we jump through the vortex we pray that we are finally returning home, only to have our hopes dashed on the other side. It is an entirely random process. We could find our world on the next slide, or we may never find it. All we can do is keep sliding." He peered at her. "Are you thinking of the choice that lies before you? It might be an easier life to stay here, and this world certainly needs you. On the other hand, from what your friend Willow tells us your friends back home are also in need of you. You could come with us and possibly find them, or you might never find your way back to them."

"Actually, I'm thinking about Dawn," Buffy admitted. "Those demons used her blood to bring us to this specific world, I'm sure of that. What I'm wondering is if we can use her blood to take us home, me to mine and you to yours."

Arturo observed her with a great deal of interest. "Now there is an idea. It's entirely possible. I'd have to work some equations of course and then there is the magical aspect that needs to be taken into account, perhaps your Willow would be kind enough to assist me." He thought about it for a few seconds. "Yes, I definitely see the possibilities. I'll get the timer from Quinn and work on it. Don't breathe a word of this to anyone, particularly Miss Wells and Mr Brown. Wouldn't want to get their hopes up."

Buffy nodded. "I'll tell Willow when she checks in. By the way, Professor, when did you become a believer?"

"Hmm?"

"You said 'magical aspect,'" Buffy reminded him.

The Professor laughed, one of the first genuinely amused sounds she'd heard from him. "I decided 'when in Rome,' Miss Summers. Last night alone I saw a woman project her image across dimensions, water demons that then dissolved upon the floor and that same young woman managed to create a breeze and change her appearance without batting an eye. Then another young woman performed amazing feats of strength that no human should be capable of. I am a scientist 

and I truly believe there is an explanation for everything, but I cannot explain what I saw last night. Nor will I waste time conjecturing when we have a job to do. You, and the people of this world, say these things were made possible with magic, who am I to argue? I needed an explanation and I have been given one, so magic it is."

As she left him to seek out Quinn and the timer Buffy decided she rather liked the professor after all.

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Wade sat in the empty classroom, absently studying the walls where displays of the students work hung proudly. Buffy was pacing behind the teachers desk while they waited for Jenny to bring Amanda to them. They'd decided to ease the girl into the whole thing. Jenny was her teacher, so she'd been deemed the best choice for the initial contact. They would then come here to explain everything away from the madness of the library. Given Amanda's occasional violence towards her male classmates they'd decided to make this a girls only thing and only bring the men in if they were sure Amanda was amenable. Wade hadn't wanted to be part of the group, but Willow had begged off.

It occurred to Wade that in the almost five days she had known Buffy the other woman seemed never to stop. It was like she had an endless supply of energy, probably another benefit of being a Slayer. No wonder she ate so much.

The door opened and a small balding man looked in. "Are you ladies alright? Can I help you at all? I'm the Principal."

Buffy was staring at the man like he was a snake about to strike so Wade answered. "We're waiting for someone."

"Ah, yes, of course. I saw you both in the library earlier, you must be working with Mr Giles, yes?"

Wade nodded politely.

"I won't keep you then," the small man said congenially. "Keep up the good work."

Buffy stared after the man. "I can't believe that in a world where nearly everyone is paranoid and afraid, Snyder is actually _nice._"

"He give you trouble on your world?" Wade grinned.

"If by trouble you mean, did he go out of his way to find me in situations that could get me expelled? Then yeah." Buffy shook her head as if she couldn't quite believe that the man who had terrorised her in school could ever be nice on any world.

The door opened again and this time Jenny stepped through with a young girl of about seventeen right behind her. Wade studied the girl, wondering if there was some sign that would prove what this girl was, something she and Buffy had in common, but there was nothing.

Amanda was tall, far taller than either Buffy or Wade and she had a long thin face surrounded by a wave of very long brown hair. She was clearly nervous, her eyes darting between the three woman, searching for some clue to why she was here. There was nothing to say this girl was a potential Slayer.

Jenny cleared her throat to get Amanda's attention and waved her to a seat. "Amanda, I'm here today as a member of an organisation that battles demons, not as your teacher, so please don't be afraid that anything said here will affect your grades or your place in my class."

"Really? You're with the resistance? Why would you want to talk to me?" Her eyes strayed to the other two women in the room, silently requesting an introduction.

"Hi, I'm Wade," Wade said, smiling widely to put Amanda at ease.

"And I'm Buffy," the blonde said. "Amanda, I want to talk to you about your future."

"Oh, wow!" The girl practically burbled with excitement. "I'm being recruited. This is so beyond cool! Is this because of that fight I got into with Matt? I can do more than just fight you know."

Buffy held up a hand to forestall the babbling. "What if I told you that we could give your life purpose? A meaning beyond anything you've ever imagined. A destiny."

Amanda gazed at her without blinking. She was nodding along eagerly.

"Amanda, something was lost a long time ago, something very precious and important," Jenny said. "Without it everything changed."

"You're talking about the Watcher's Council," Amanda deduced. "They lost their weapon and then told everyone about the monsters. What does this have to do with me?"

"The weapon wasn't a sword or a rocket launcher," Buffy told her. "It was a girl, or rather, a line of girls. All of them the Slayer. With one girl's death another was chosen to take her place, but that line was interrupted and without the Slayer the Council had no way of protecting this world." Buffy's jaw clenched as she said the word Council as she refrained from telling their potential recruit what she really thought about the idea of them protecting anyone. "The Slayer is a warrior. She's stronger than other humans, faster."

"OK," Amanda stared around at them all wonderingly. "I've heard stories about the Council all my life. I can't believe they used a girl to fight their war. Are you telling me I'm a Slayer?"

"Not yet," Wade said with a grin. She couldn't help but be a little envious. Who wouldn't want that kind of power? She doubted she even had the potential having grown up on a world where there was no magic.

"We've found a way to restart the line," Buffy admitted. "At any given moment there are hundreds maybe thousands of girls across the world who have the potential to be a Slayer. We think you're one of them and if you agree we want to make you the Slayer."

"This is so amazing," Amanda gushed. "I'm going to be a warrior."

"Wait," Buffy said quickly. "You should take some time, think about it, talk it over with your parents. This isn't some spur of the moment decision with no consequences. This will affect you for the rest of your life. We can always find another potential."

Wade's jaw dropped. They urgently needed this to be done. True, nothing could happen until the Willow of Buffy's world returned so they had a little time, but it was already starting to run out. They didn't have a few days for the girl to mull it over. Besides, who in their right mind would turn down that kind of opportunity?

Amanda seemed to feel the same way. "No, it's OK, I want to do this."

Buffy pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. "Look, you're not seeing the downside to this. It's dangerous and it's all the time. There's no back up because no one else can really keep up with you, there's no days off. The fate of the world would be on your shoulders all the time and it'll get scary and there'll be choices you have to make that will change you until you hardly recognise yourself and that's only if you survive long enough to notice what's happened to you." She sighed. "I swore that I would be straight with you. I never had a choice. I never want to see another girl go down the same path I did. Please think about it calmly and rationally before you make up your mind, 'cos once we do this, there's no going back."

Amanda gulped. "I will."

Wade stared at Buffy incredulously. She'd not thought overly much on the downside of being a Slayer. It had seemed so awesome, especially after she'd seen Buffy in action back at the cave. She'd immediately yearned for the exquisite grace the girl moved with and the strength that belied her every movement. She'd been so caught up in just how incredible the whole thing was that it hadn't occurred to her that this wasn't a happy world and that by becoming a Slayer Amanda could very possibly be signing her own death certificate.

"If everything works out the way I hope it will, you won't be the only new Slayer, but you will be the first among them," Buffy said. "The line will pass through you and it will be up to you to lead them, at least at first. I want you to come back to the library with us and I'll start your training. You can still back out at any time."

Amanda's expression hardened into one of resolve. "I'm pretty sure I won't be backing out."

Buffy nodded with respect showing in her eyes. She was proud, Wade realised, of this girl, making such a hard decision. Buffy may not like being the Slayer, but she understood the necessity and the fact she was signing Amanda up for the same kind of life she'd had was clearly eating at her.

They walked back to the library in near silence. Wade's thoughts turned to the arcane and the way her heart had always sped up at the thought of it. She'd always been fascinated with magic, pretending to do spells as a child and even in college she'd experimented with some of her friends. Just the little stuff, like using rose petals in a bowl of water to learn the name of her true love and such. None of it had ever worked, but she'd never stopped believing.

And then she'd started sliding and she'd seen things that only strengthened her beliefs, like druids and dragons and witch doctors and now this world that was literally overflowing with magic and she'd been overwhelmed. She'd longed to lose herself in Giles' books and learn everything she could, maybe even try a few things, see if she had any power.

Now suddenly it didn't seem nearly as fun. Everything came with a price. Buffy, for all her abilities, regretted her time as Slayer. Willow – the one from Buffy's world – was a powerful witch, would she say she wished she'd never discovered magic?

Her musings were cut short as she entered the library to find the place in chaos. Books and papers were strewn everywhere, bookshelves had been overturned and part of the railing behind the study area had been shattered. What was worse, Wade could only see two people lying about the room.

Buffy and Jenny reacted immediately. Jenny raced to the side of the nearest man, while Buffy seemed to be tense, on alert as if she were reaching out to sense who had done this.

It was Larry whom Jenny turned over and checked. "He's OK, just out cold."

The other person could only be Daniel and Wade quickly went to him and checked his pulse. He was conscious, but had taken a knock to the head and he seemed to be having trouble focusing on her.

"Whoever did this is long gone," Buffy said distractedly.

"Demons," Daniel gasped. "Took Giles and Willow and your two friends. Quinn and Rembrandt. Couldn't stop them, there were too many."

"Take it easy," Wade soothed. "We'll get them back." Even as she said it she was overcome with despair. They had no idea where the guys were and everything just seemed so much. Tears were flowing down Jenny's cheeks and Wade remembered that Giles was her husband.

Buffy drew in a deep breath and took charge. "Jenny, call Angel, tell him to get here as soon as it's dark. Wade, do they need to go to the hospital?"

"I don't know," Wade said uncertainly. "I'm pretty sure they'll both be alright. Daniel might have a concussion."

"Call an ambulance just in case," Buffy decided. "We should get them checked over."

Wade hurried to the phone as Jenny was replacing it in the cradle she heard Buffy say to Amanda, "You still sure you want to be a part of this?"

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A/N: Hey everyone. Just a quick note to say thanks for your reviews and I hope you've enjoyed the latest chapter.

Coming next time: The Captives. If any of you desperately want to read it now in its unedited form you can by clicking on the link to my Yahoo! Group on my profile.

Please don't forget to review.

Nat.


	9. The Captives

Chapter 9.

Rembrandt awoke to a pounding headache. He kept his face still and slit his eyes. He'd been sliding for over two years now and this wasn't the first time someone had knocked him out. He just needed to figure out a few things, like where he was, who was with him and if the timer was nearby. Oh, and he needed a way out.

The room was dark, but there was some movement nearby, shadows mostly. From this angle he couldn't see much of anything. There was some whispering nearby, but not close enough for him to make out what was being said or who was saying it.

Oh well, no point in lying here forever if he couldn't see or hear anything. He sat up abruptly, making no pretence of the fact he'd been awake for a while.

"Remmy?"

It was Quinn's voice, muttering to him out of the darkness and he was heartened by it. If he had to be captured at least he wasn't alone and there was no one better than Quinn to be a prisoner with. If anyone could figure out a way out of here, it would be Quinn.

"Yeah, it's me Q-Ball. Where are we?"

"We don't know. All any of us remember is demons attacking the library, the same ones we saw back on Buffy's world. Somehow they knocked us all out and then brought us here."

"We? Who else is here?" Rembrandt knew they weren't alone, he'd heard voices earlier and could still see something moving in the dim light.

"Mr Giles and Willow. For some reason they left Daniel and Larry behind. I'm just glad Wade and Buffy were off talking to Amanda and the Professor left on some errand. He has the timer."

That _was_ some small comfort. As long as they got out of here on time they should have no trouble sliding when the window arrived.

Light spilled into the room from a door he hadn't seen before and Rembrandt squinted into it. A woman stood in the doorway, a woman in a red dress and high heels, dressed for a night on the town. She was stunning, with curls spilling over her bare shoulders and a cute pout on her lips.

"This is them?" she asked. Her disdainful tone was enough to convince Rembrandt that in this case beauty was only skin deep.

"Yes, Fabulous One," the voice was coming from someone on the other side of the door. Rembrandt couldn't see the speaker, but whoever it was sounded servile, worshipful. "The tall one, the English man, the red haired woman and the black skinned man, just as my alternate self said. We could not bring you the blonde as she was not present."

The woman scowled. "And you checked them for the device?"

"They do not have it, my Goddess."

Rembrandt sucked in a horrified breath. Goddess? Did that mean they were Glory's prisoners? And the way the simpering voice had described them... they'd been specifically looking for the sliders, only they seemed unaware that they'd only gotten two, thinking that Willow and Giles were Wade and the Professor.

"Useless! You're so useless, minion. What use are they without the device? The girl must have it." The woman, Glory, ran a hand through her hair, glaring at them all the while. "Still, I suppose I can at least eat their brains."

A thrill of horror clutched at Rembrandt. Buffy had told them the woman literally fed off her victims' sanity. He did not want to end up some vegetable stuck on a world not his own for the rest of his life. Especially not _this _world.

"Mistress, most wonderful Lady, they could still be useful as bait for the girl. She will bring the timer in exchange for their lives."

Yeah and once Buffy got here she could kick ass and they could all go home.

"Ya know, that might actually be a workable plan. Good work minion! Now I won't have to kill you for your earlier incompetence."

"Oh thank you, thank you. Let all hear of the mercifulness of the Great Glorificus."

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up already. Toss my key in and lock the door. Might as well keep all the prisoners in one room. It's so much more _convenient_."

A flurry of movement and something hit the floor, then the woman was gone and so was the light.

"Hello?" it was a young girl's voice, not afraid, but definitely nervous. Glory had mentioned the key so Rembrandt suspected that this was Buffy's sister Dawn.

"Hi," he said, trying to project all the warmth he could into his voice. "My name's Rembrandt. I'm a friend of your sister's."

"Really? She never mentioned you," the girl said suspiciously.

"Do you know where we are?" Willow asked, a tremor in her voice.

"No, Willow, I told you that already," Dawn said impatiently. "But it's OK. Now you're really here you can blast the door or something."

"I'm afraid that's impossible," Giles said. "It wasn't this Willow that you spoke to, but an alternate version of her, rather, the one you knew from your own world."

"Giles? Oh my God! I thought you were still in England. How did they get you? Did you see Glory? How can she be alive again? And what do you mean 'my own world?' And alternate version? Did she do a spell that went whacky? Like that time Xander got split in two?" The questions poured out so quickly that Rembrandt was having a hard time following. He sighed, resigning himself to explaining sliding for the third time on this world.

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Buffy paced. It felt like she'd been treading this path for hours. Maybe she had been. It had been light when they'd returned here and found half of their friends gone, school had just ended, but now it was dark and had been for some time.

Angel had arrived right after sunset and he'd immediately tried to comfort her. Buffy had smiled at him sadly and told him it was Jenny and Oz that needed that comfort the most, after all, it was their significant others that had been taken.

Jenny was a wreck, sobbing until she'd fallen asleep in Wade's arms. Oz sat staring into space, barely blinking. He refused to look at anyone. Buffy allowed them this time to come to grips with the situation, although she couldn't help but be pleased that Wade was dealing with it much more stoically. But then she was almost as used to this sort of thing as Buffy was if even half of the sliders stories could be believed. The Hellmouth here was so much quieter than the one she remembered and the ones that guarded it much less experienced in battle and loss.

She sighed. In some ways it really was better here, at least in this town. Maybe the situation worldwide was dire, but right here all Buffy could see was the people who were alive that she herself had seen killed. Like Oz and Jenny; both long dead on her world, but here they thrived. Oz had never been touched with lycanthropy and so he and Willow had been happy together. Angel had never sacrificed himself for a world that didn't care. How many other dead friends lived on here? Tara? Anya? _Spike_? What about Jesse, the friend of Willow and Xander who'd been turned right back when she first moved to this forsaken town?

Xander. He hadn't made it here. The thought alone made her heart clench. A world without Xander was so _wrong_. She needed him so much. How could she have never told him how much she appreciated him? He was always there with a joke or a hug depending on the situation, and she was ashamed to admit she'd taken him for granted many times over the years. Now he wasn't here and she realised how much she needed him. She so wanted to tell him how important he was to her.

Well, that was a goal then. She was _going _to find a way home and tell Xander in no uncertain terms just how much she valued his friendship. Right after she rescued Dawn.

Arturo and Larry were talking quietly. Buffy had been relieved when he'd come pacing into the library shortly before nightfall, telling them he'd been off to get some equipment. They'd also been relieved to discover he had the timer, having taken it from Quinn earlier that day. From the description she'd gotten of the demons from Larry and Oz it sounded like Quinn and the others had been taken by Glory's minions. The last thing they needed was for Glory to get her hands on the timer.

Amanda had gone home to talk to her parents right after the attack. Maybe she'd had second thoughts, not that Buffy could blame her. She'd promised to drop by the next day and give them the verdict. They'd been trying to think of alternatives should she decide not to go along with it, but Amanda had been the only Sunnydale resident to be Called and Buffy wasn't familiar enough with any of the girls from nearby towns to identify them. It looked like they might have to reveal all to the Council.

The phone rang, but Buffy ignored it. They had only three days to locate a potential, activate her and from there every Potential on the planet, rescue Dawn and the others and leave this world forever. Meanwhile Arturo was working on a way to use Dawn's blood to control the slide, though Buffy suspected he wouldn't have much luck with that without Willow's help.

Willow had quite the task ahead of her as well. Not only did she need to research spells to help bring them home, activate a single potential and stop the Slayers deteriorating any further, but she was also spying on Glory for them. Hopefully she'd be checking in soon.

"Buffy, I've got Mrs Collins on the phone, Amanda's mom," Wade called. "She wants to set up a meeting with someone to discuss what we told Amanda earlier."

Buffy nodded. Maybe they hadn't lost Amanda after all.

"Tell her I'll be right over."

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"This is... Wow. I can't believe it. We're on an actual parallel world," Dawn said breathlessly. It's like something out of a comic book. I can't wait to tell Xander. Or Andrew. They'll be so jealous."

Quinn squirmed uncomfortably, glad that the young girl couldn't see him. "Dawn, you need to understand something. We might not be able to get you home." He felt responsible for all of this. After all, if he had never invented sliding none of them would be here right now.

There was a long silence and Quinn held his breath waiting for the inevitable explosion.

"But Buffy's here, right? She came through with you guys?" Dawn's voice shook slightly with unshed tears.

"Yeah, she did," Rembrandt said gently. He was far better at the comforting thing than Quinn was.

"Then it's OK. As long as she's here it'll be alright."

That simple statement caught at Quinn's heart. Dawn and Buffy were family, just like Wade, Rembrandt and the Professor were to him. He'd often felt that the only thing holding him together was their friendship, that without them he might as well give up.

"We need to find a way out of here," he said thickly.

"It'll be alright," Dawn said again, so softly Quinn wasn't sure if she was trying to assure them or herself. "Buffy will come for me – for us. She's never let me down and she never will. She's a hero; it's what she does."

Quinn was glad he didn't have to wonder what it felt like to feel such devotion. He felt that way about the other sliders all the time. No matter what crazy situations they got themselves into, they could always count on each other.

Leaving Rembrandt to talk to Dawn, Quinn began feeling his way around the room. He knew that Wade and the Professor would be coming for them – and Buffy as well – but that didn't mean he was going to just sit here and wait for them.

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Two hours later Buffy led the Collins family into Sunnydale High's library.

Mr and Mrs Collins had been surprised that Buffy had come to them after dark and had berated her for her recklessness until Buffy had explained the urgency of the situation and told them that she had never been in any danger anyway. It had taken a long time to go over Slayers, sliding and exactly what they wanted from Amanda. She'd told them everything, including a much edited story of her own experiences as a Slayer. While she didn't want to hold anything back, wanting them to make an informed decision, she was also worried about frightening them off and they needed Amanda, the world needed her.

Although a decision had not yet been made the small family had decided that it wouldn't hurt to let Buffy train Amanda in the meantime, would in fact keep her safer in the future even if they decided not to agree, but Amanda's parents had wanted to watch.

Buffy tried to imagine what would have happened if the Watcher's Council had approached her mother about the Slayer thing. Joyce would not have gone along with it, even as far as the Collins had, probably going so far as to throw the Watchers out of her home to protect her daughter. Things were different here; everything was so dark and seemingly hopeless. People were afraid to leave their homes, to talk to strangers, they even left packages of blood for the vampires to appease them. It was a small miracle the Collins' had allowed Buffy into their home, let her talk to them, or maybe the Collins' were smart enough to know this was right. This world was calling out for a saviour and Buffy was telling them their daughter was going to fulfil that role. She suddenly remembered Kendra, whose parents had given her to the Council at a young age because they believed so strongly in the Slayer, strongly enough to sacrifice their daughter, to never see her again.

Buffy blinked back the tears that threatened to well up. Would the Collins' decision to listen to her lead to their own daughter's sacrifice? Would Amanda become a Slayer, only to die young and innocent? As soon as the demons realised the Slayer line had been restarted they would come for her, and then her successor after her and so on. Was this the right thing to do?

But the world needed to be saved and only a Slayer could do that. Buffy knew what it felt like to be the only thing standing between the darkness and the light and although she wouldn't wish it on anyone she also knew how important it was that someone was there to do it because this world was the result of having no Slayer, a world where the demons weren't afraid.

So yes, not only was this necessary, it was also the right thing to do. She was giving Amanda the tools to save the world. It may not be pretty and it definitely wasn't fun, but there was no denying that it was _right_.

She directed Mr and Mrs Collins to sit off to one side as she walked Amanda through some stances. Amanda was a keen student and tried to convince Buffy to show her how to use some of the more advanced weapons, but Buffy held her back, insisting that she wasn't ready yet. Amanda may prove gifted, but that was no reason to rush her training. There was plenty of time yet and Giles could continue after she'd gone, if they managed to rescue him that is.

Buffy almost started when she realised she'd finally made a decision. She wasn't going to stay here, not even for Angel. Dawn wouldn't want to stay, she was sure of that. Buffy wanted to go home too.

Willow arrived at some point and was immediately involved in a discussion with Wade, but Buffy ignored them for now knowing that Willow would interrupt if she had anything urgent to report.

She corrected Amanda's position, nudging her shoulder back an inch and gazed thoughtfully at the younger girl.

"Why does it matter where my shoulder is?" Amanda demanded petulantly.

"It gives you better balance," Buffy explained patiently remembering some of the lectures she'd delivered to newbie Slayers. "It'll also allow you to twist out of the way more easily should you need to. Every part of your body is important in a fight. Any part of you can be used as a weapon, _if_ you know how to use it. That's what I'm going to teach you over the next few days. I'm not going to show you many moves and weapons, Giles can do that when I'm gone, what I'm going to teach you, is to think."

Amanda pouted. "That's boring."

"You think so?" Buffy snapped. She hadn't really lost her patience, but a year of teaching girls who thought they knew better than she did had taught her a few tricks. "A sword is a powerful weapon, but it's useless if you don't know how to use it. The same can be said of your brain. Power doesn't come from knives and crossbows, it comes from inside of you. You may well become the most powerful weapon on this earth and if you can't control yourself _someone else will_. Hell, there's a whole society of people who'd be only too happy to tell you what to do and what to think. You _will not let them_. You, Amanda, will be in charge of you. When I'm finished with you, you will stop thinking like a schoolgirl and start thinking like a general. You will walk into a room and know what to do should an attack occur, where the escape routes are, who needs protection and where the best places to make a stand are. When you meet someone you will be thinking about the best way to take them down quickly and with as little risk as possible to yourself and those around you. But most importantly I will teach you how to put it all away at the end of the night and go home and be normal, because trust me, _that'_s the part they always leave out."

"But..." Amanda was eyeing her nervously. "I thought I would be learning how to fight."

"You will be, but not yet," Buffy spoke more gently now. "I know this sounds scary and I'm sorry about that, but it's important. _You_ are important. I know what Watchers can be like and they'll forget you're a person with thoughts and feelings. All they'll see is the Slayer, someone they can send to their death. Giles is one of the good guys, he looked out for me and I know he'll do the same for you, but the rest of them – not so good. They will take advantage of you if you let them. That's why you need to think for yourself, because you can't blindly trust that they have your best interests at heart. On my world they had this test; they basically took away a Slayer's power and locked her in a house with a vampire. If she killed it great, they had a Slayer who was marginally better qualified that she was before. If not, well she was dead and they would get a brand new Slayer to play with. They won't care about you, you'll just be a commodity to them and they won't hesitate to throw your life away in this little war _they_ are fighting, because there will always be another girl with the Potential to take your place."

Amanda swallowed hard. "This is more complicated than I thought."

Buffy chuckled humourlessly. "Fighting's the easy part; a little training and your instincts will tell you everything else you need to know. What's hard is the part between the fights, when you're not so sure who the good guys are anymore. You've got to look out for you, because you might be the only one who is."

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When Willow had appeared in the centre of the library Wade had pulled her aside and told her the latest developments. It turned out she already knew. On her way to them she had stopped to check on Dawn, apparently they were all together, being held by Glory. Willow had tried to find out where they were, but they had all been unconscious when they were brought in. Things were getting desperate now, they only had three more days until the slide so Willow was going to try a locator spell. It was apparently quite difficult to cast spells in an astral form, but Willow seemed confident she could do it so Wade didn't question her.

"See, 'cos I'm not from this world and I'm only partially here the chances are that I'll locate someone's double from where my physical body is, not here, or it could happen in any of the worlds between, but then there's Dawn. Right now she only exists here on _this_ world, she has no doubles anywhere, so as long as I make her the focus of the spell it should find her and the others." Willow grinned sheepishly. "At least, that's what I think. I've kinda been focusing on the other spells so I've not had time to research how this one will work while I'm projecting my image. We'll just have to try and hope it works."

All her life Wade had dreamed of magic and now here she was, sitting with a real witch and about to see an actual spell, she couldn't believe her luck. Except she kept remembering what Buffy had told Amanda this afternoon and now she wasn't so sure magic was what she had imagined it to be.

"Willow," she said uncertainly and waited for the other girl to look up. "What's it like, being a witch?"

Willow continued to smile, but something about her wide-eyed gaze seemed haunted. "Sometimes it seems so powerful, so good and you feel like nothing can stop you. When I first started I was so full of big ideas. I was going to change the world and I was going to make a difference. Of course, it wasn't that easy. You don't just say the magic words and wait for the magic to happen. This kind of power in the hands of amateurs is dangerous. Things go wrong, people get hurt."

Wade remembered the love spell she and Rembrandt had tried back on the Druid world. That had gone spectacularly wrong. Instead of the woman in question falling for Rembrandt _he_ had fallen for Wade.

"It turns out everything has a balance," Willow went on. "And a price. Especially the darker stuff. I don't know if Buffy told you, but I got addicted to the magics. I was completely out of control. I killed a person and then I tried to end the world, but Xander stopped me. He was the only one who could reach me at all at that point, Buffy couldn't have, I was too far gone, but Xander managed to touch the part of me that was still human, that still cared and I let it all go for him."

It was hard to imagine Willow out of control, she was such a sweet girl, almost shy at times, but incredibly open. "Buffy mentioned something about power coming with a price," Wade said tentatively. "I guess that got me thinking and I wondered what you thought."

The two young women turned to watch Buffy and Amanda talking under the watchful eyes of Mr and Mrs Collins. "She's giving Amanda one of her famous speeches," Willow said softly. "She sometimes runs these seminars for the newbie Slayers and she talks to them about their role in the world. People think a Slayer is just a warrior, but they're so much more than that. With their powers anyone could pick up a stake and kill vampires, it's Buffy who teaches them how to really _be_ a Slayer. They hang on her every word, just like Amanda is now, because she's Buffy Summers, she's saved the world more times than I can count and no one will ever know, or thank her. She's a real hero.

"Buffy's had to pay a higher price than anyone I know for her power and unlike me she didn't seek that power out. You know, they call Slayers the Chosen Ones because someone else makes that decision they don't choose it for themselves. I imagine Buffy tried to talk Amanda out of it despite how desperate this world is. It's not a fun job, Wade, I don't know what you imagined, but it's hard and painful and yes, there's a price. For me it was losing control, for Buffy it was everything she ever wanted, her innocence, her love, her life."

Wade gasped. She'd heard something about Buffy having to kill Angel to save the world and she imagined it was hard to stay innocent when you spent so much time fighting monsters, but her life?

"Not just once either," Willow continued. "She died when she was sixteen, knew it would happen, but she went anyway. It was the most incredibly brave thing you could imagine. Actually that's one of the reasons I cast my first spell; I wanted to be brave like Buffy and I knew the spell - to return Angel's soul – was dangerous, that I could die, but I knew Buffy would do it for me and I had to do it for her and for Angel. Then she died again the first time we faced Glory. She jumped into the portal between worlds and closed it, but it killed her. I brought her back that time, with magic, the spell that started me on my own downward spiral.

"I thought I was so clever," Willow's voice was tinged with bitterness. "So powerful that I'd done something no one else could hope to. But I was wrong. Like Giles said, it wasn't that no one else _could_, so much that no one else _would_. By bringing her back I made it possible for the First to try and take over. I guess I got what I wanted, right? I changed the world, only not for the better. Because of me the world was nearly over run by the Turok Han."

"You did change the world for the better, Will, so much more than you ever thought possible," Buffy was standing over them, gazing softly at her best friend. "It's because of you that we managed to defeat the First and not die down in the Hellmouth. You're the one that activated all the Slayers. We didn't just save the world that day, we changed it and we've made everyone's lives so much better."

Willow's smile was somewhat watery and Wade knew she was close to tears. "Now we have to do the same here," she said firmly. "I'm just about to do a locator spell for Dawn, then I think I'm ready to make Amanda a Slayer."

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A/N: Nothing much to say except I'm sorry for yet another wait. I've got to admit the only reason I updated today was that I got a very encouraging review on another site where I post this story and I wanted to thank that reviewer with a chapter.

Thanks for the reviews and hopefully I won't take so long next time.

Next time: The Summit.

Nat.


	10. The Summit

Chapter 10.

Willow watched the set up for the spell with a critical eye, directing Wade to spread the salt in a wider circle and to set the scythe in the centre.

Buffy sat on the steps with Amanda and watched. Naturally the younger girl was feeling a bit nervous about what they were about to do, but there was a set about her shoulders that showed her determination.

"You don't have to do this," Buffy murmured so no one else would hear. "I won't think any less of you if you back out. No one will."

"Not gonna happen," Amanda said firmly. "This is important, I can feel it. I want to do this."

Willow wandered over, finally satisfied with the arrangements. Wade sat down with the Professor, who had pages of notes spread before him, both seemed mildly curious as they watched Willow expectantly.

"I think we're ready whenever you are," Willow said, hesitantly.

Buffy glanced at Amanda, whose jaw had tightened imperceptibly. "What's going to happen?" she asked, wanting a little more time, just in case Amanda decided she didn't want to do this after all.

"Amanda will step into the circle with me and take the scythe in her hands," Willow explained, also studying Amanda. "I'll chant some things and the power should flow into Amanda. The hard part here was making sure that it'll be Amanda that gets these powers, that's why she needs to be in the circle, otherwise it could be some random girl that becomes the Slayer."

"Does it really matter?" Wade asked. "As long as there_ is_ a Slayer, does it matter who it is? The Watchers Council can find her after we're gone and train her."

"It matters because Amanda knows what's going to happen and she's agreed to it. I don't want to force this on some innocent, unsuspecting girl," said Buffy from between clenched teeth.

"Besides, there are very few Watchers who wouldn't use her for their own ends," Willow said. "Amanda knows that and she won't blindly trust them. If we activate some other girl and leave the Watchers to do the rest who knows what they'll end up telling her."

"Can we just do it?" Amanda said and stood up, stomping over to the circle of salt and glancing back over her shoulder to see if Willow was following.

"You should probably stay back," Willow said before joining Amanda at the circle.

As one they stepped over the salt and Willow directed Amanda to sit cross legged in the centre with the scythe across her lap. Willow knelt before her and placed one hand a few inches above the scythe.

She took a deep breath to prepare herself and began to chant. "_Is est unus quisnam peto. Is gero telum of Trucido. Tribuo suus vox intus. Planto suus vestri Electus Unus_."

Buffy held her breath, silently praying for this to work. Willow's spell-work might be a lot more reliable these days, but she still vividly remembered the time she ended up engaged to Spike.

After a moment Willow repeated the spell and Buffy feared it hadn't worked, but before she could say anything Willow and Amanda seemed to glow for a moment and then everything was back to normal.

"Did it work?" Wade said excitedly.

"Wow," Amanda said before Willow could answer. "I didn't notice before, but this is amazing." She was gazing at the scythe on her lap as if it were the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Reverently she picked it up in both hands.

"Explain it," Buffy said quietly. She was already fairly certain what Amanda was feeling, but she wanted confirmation.

"It's like... it was made for me," Amanda said slowly. "I feel like all the answers are right here."

Buffy couldn't help her grin. "At least we know it worked. That's exactly how I feel when I hold it."

"So what now?" Wade said helplessly.

"Angel will be back soon," Buffy said thoughtfully. "I think it's time Amanda went on her first patrol."

"I oughta go," Willow said. "The squad's will start coming in soon and I should be there. I'll check in on Dawnie before I leave."

"Thanks Will," said Buffy. "Do you think you can be here tomorrow morning? Now that we have two Slayers we need to come up with a plan to rescue Dawn and the others. You can do a locator spell and we need to work out if we can activate all the other potentials."

"I'll be here," Willow promised.

Buffy gave her a grateful nod. "Give Dawn my love. Tell her I'm coming for her."

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It was quiet in the cell. And dark. So dark that Dawn couldn't see her own hand when she held it an inch before her nose. At least she had someone to talk to now.

The last few days had been terrifying until she'd realised that whatever Glory's plan was she didn't intend to hurt her... at least not yet.

It had been rare for her to be left unattended although Glory wasn't around that much. Presumably at least some of the time she wasn't here she was Ben, if that still worked the same in this whacky reality. Unfortunately in Glory's absence she was surrounded by icky demons who treated her like she was some kind of royalty, except they wouldn't let her go.

The only comfort she'd had over the last few days was the knowledge that Buffy was out there and her sister would _never_ abandon her. And then Glory had come to her and told her that they'd captured her friends and she'd been so scared that Buffy was hurt, or worse.

She'd been dragged along to this dingy room and had listened as Glory spoke scathingly to her new prisoners, but she hadn't been able to see in and then she was thrown in with them and sentenced to this impenetrable dark with people she'd never met, two of whom were very familiar despite that fact.

She wondered about them. Willow was much quieter than she was used to and Giles seemed far less confident and all knowing, if they hadn't told her about this sliding thing she might have thought they were under a spell.

Then there was the other two, Remmy and Quinn. From what she could tell they were both fairly nice guys. Remmy was the friendlier of the two and she found his presence somewhat comforting. Quinn was the brains of the duo and from what he had been saying about sliding and how he had created it he must be immensely clever.

She clung to their presence in the darkness, like a child's security blanket. They were a link to her sister and if nothing else they let her know that Buffy was out there, had jumped into their vortex to save her. It wasn't the first time.

"Whoa, it's so dark," Willow said suddenly.

Dawn wondered if this world's Willow was missing a few IQ points. "Well, _yeah_, you only just noticed?"

"I only just got here," Willow said.

Definitely not as bright as the Willow she was used to.

"Light," Willow whispered.

A ball of light appeared so suddenly in the darkness, stabbing at Dawn's eyes. She snapped them closed, wincing. "You could have warned me."

"Sorry," Willow said apologetically.

Dawn was preparing a suitably witty remark when it occurred to her that this Willow couldn't do magic, so how had she made light with just a word? She squinted her eyes, trying to see how it was done.

Despite everything she had witnessed over the years she was entirely gobsmacked when she saw two Willow's.

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"It's just not fair," Buffy complained. "Back home I could walk into a demon bar and they'd all be cowering away, praying I don't notice them, but here... nothing."

"Yeah, well I for one think last night was pretty awesome," Amanda enthused. "I mean, first there was that vampire, then those three demons. The whole thing was just... I have no words."

Buffy smiled at her. "I know what you mean. The rush of a good fight, the feeling that you're making a difference to the world is just incredible."

Amanda gazed around at the others preparing for the meeting. "They'll never get it, will they?"

"Nope," Buffy admitted. "We're Slayers, that's always meant being alone, feeling things no one else can feel. We're warriors. No matter how hard they try they won't understand us."

"At least I've got you," Amanda said. "I'm not alone."

"Amanda," Buffy sighed. "I'm not staying here. I made up my mind last night. I want to go home."

"Oh." Amanda studied her hands for a long moment.

Jenny was placing a 'Closed for Cleaning' sign outside the doors to ensure they weren't disturbed. The windows had been covered so Angel could attend and now the meeting looked just about ready to start. They were just waiting on Willow.

"What about the second spell?" Amanda asked.

"Willow's still trying to figure out the logistics. It's a lot more powerful than the one she performed last night and she's not really here. She may not be able to pull it off."

"So I really will be alone," said Amanda sadly.

"No," Buffy said forcefully. "You're not alone. Because you've got your mom and dad and these guys and your own friends. Keep them close and never try to push them away. They'll ground you, keep you human when the rest of the world starts pulling you in every direction. It's going to be different for you than it ever was for me, 'cos your whole world knows about the supernatural. Eventually they'll find out there's someone out there who's killing them far more successfully than the military and they'll take notice. The world will be watching you, looking to you to save them, maybe even to lead them, who knows?"

"So, no pressure," Amanda said deprecatingly.

"It's not going to be easy," Buffy admitted. "But I wouldn't have let you do it if I didn't think you could handle it."

"You've only known me for a day," Amanda pointed out.

"True, but I knew your counterpart for much longer. She was so brave. She fought in the Hellmouth even though she was half convinced we were all going to die down there. She was... a good Slayer. You will be too."

Willow chose that moment to materialise in the centre of the library and they all convened at the table. Buffy looked around at her companions – a mismatched group of misfits upon whom the fate of the world may rest. Wade and Arturo sat side by side, the timer before them and seemingly almost as worried as Buffy herself. Jenny, Oz and Larry took up an entire side of the table. Jenny's face was pale and withdrawn and her hooded eyes masked the pain that Buffy knew was there. Oz seemed emotionless, but anyone who knew him well could see he was putting on a brave face. 

Across from them she, Angel and Amanda took their seats and Willow, unable to sit on the chair in her incorporeal state, stood in the last one instead.

Willow cleared her throat. "Before we start, I have some news about Faith."

Buffy glanced up in surprise. "You found her?"

"Yeah," Willow looked away, refusing to meet Buffy's eyes. "It seems the team she was with, met a powerful demon tribe just after a number of them lost their powers. Their vehicle was destroyed and they were out in the weather in Russia, about a hundred miles from safety. The ones that survived the fight couldn't make it back to Moscow. They started turning back into normal girls and they didn't have the equipment..." Willow swallowed hard. "Only Faith made it back."

"Robin?" Buffy asked.

"Never stood a chance. From what I've gotten out of Faith he died in the initial battle. She's pretty torn up."

Buffy felt the tears welling up in her eyes and ruthlessly blinked them away. She had come to respect Robin despite his authoritative tendencies. He had been a good man and good for Faith in particular. And then there was the girls, true heroes every one of them, going into hostile territory to find some of their sister Slayers and losing their lives. It would weigh heavily on Faith. Coupled with Robin's loss she would be devastated. Buffy knew what survivors guilt was like and she wouldn't wish that feeling on anyone, not even Faith despite their turbulent past.

Buffy bowed her head, giving a respectful moment of silence for the girls whose bodies they might never recover and for the man who had taught so many of them.

"Can you rework the spell through Faith now?" she asked hollowly.

"I already tried," said Willow. "It won't work while the old spell is still active. We'll have to wait until it's completely worn off before trying again."

"How long will that be?" Buffy felt numb. Did it matter? She might never be able to get back there.

"A week? Maybe two. Could be as long as a month," Willow sounded uncertain. "This spell has never been used before so there's no way to be sure."

A month? The demons could take out an awful lot of people in that time, especially if Faith was out of commission. "Did you speak to Dawn and the others?" she said, sadly dismissing her grief for the moment.

"They're all OK, if a bit bored. Glory locked them all in a dark room and left them to it, but she hasn't hurt any of them. I left them a light spell, but it wouldn't have lasted long after I left."

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief. She had known that Glory wouldn't risk hurting Dawn until she had a way to use the key, but she had been worried nonetheless.

"They're all being kept together?" Arturo asked. "That will be most useful if we can attempt a rescue. Do you think you can lead us to them?"

Willow shook her head. "The whole building, wherever it is, is covered in spells. I can use magic inside her wards, but I can't affect anything inside them from out here, or anything out here from inside. It's why locating spells aren't working. I can't even walk through the walls there. It's a fortress."

"It's OK, we'll find a way in," Buffy declared, more for the other's sake than out of any true conviction.

"Well, we've got three days, fourteen hours and twenty seven minutes to come up with a plan and rescue the others before we slide off this world," Wade announced.

"In the meantime our friends won't be hurt," Willow assured everyone. "Dawn's too important to Glory and although she wanted to eat the other's brains one of her minions convinced her not to. They think they've got all four of the sliders, a redhead, a British man, Quinn and Rembrandt. According to what they overheard Glory thinks the only one she hasn't got is Buffy and she's assuming Buffy has the timer. Her plan is to lure Buffy there in order to make an exchange. She won't hurt them before that." Willow paused a moment. "It seems that even though the two that kidnapped Dawn from our world told her about Buffy she either doesn't believe what they said about the Slayer or she underestimates Buffy to the point that she doesn't consider her a threat."

"She always did border on arrogant," Buffy muttered.

"She's a God," Willow said with a shrug. "If anyone's allowed to think they're above us puny humans it's her."

"This will work to our advantage, right," Larry said thoughtfully. "Whether she believes in your powers or not she's going to be pretty over confident. Maybe even to the point where she makes mistakes."

"Maybe," Buffy conceded.

"Plus, she won't know about me," Amanda said cheerfully. "Does that make me the secret weapon?"

"How does one kill a God?" Arturo mused. "How did you kill your own Glory?"

Buffy and Willow exchanged a long look. "Glory herself is essentially un-killable," Willow told them. "But she has an alter-ego."

"Think of it as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," Buffy explained. "We can't kill Jekyll, but Hyde's fair game."

"I'm not sure I understand," Arturo admitted.

"Glory's siblings connected her to a human when they sent her to our world. A man called Ben. Only one of them was in control of their body at any one time. When Glory ran out of power she reverted to Ben, when she was strong again she took over.

"It might sound awful, but the only way we can take out Glory is to kill Ben," Buffy said.

"So we'll be killing an innocent man to take out his evil counterpart?" Wade said, a shiver of disgust running through her.

"I know it's not an ideal solution," Willow admitted. "And you don't have to kill Glory. You can weaken her enough that Ben takes over and leave."

"But that means we're pretty much abandoning this world to an insane Goddess who will be extremely angry at a lot of the people in this room and we're not all gonna be sliding out of here," Buffy pointed out. "She will take out her anger on the people of this world. Trust me she can do a lot of damage."

Silently they contemplated the decision. Kill an innocent man or leave Glory to take vengeance on millions of innocents. They all knew what they would have to do.

"What about this spell to activate the other Potentials?" Wade said. "We could use the firepower, even if we can only get one or two here on time."

"It's risky, even if the spell worked," Buffy told her. "We've got a little time to train Amanda, but if we start looking for other girls they'll be completely inexperienced and despite having Slayer powers they'll be canon fodder."

"I'm really not sure I can do it, anyway," Willow said. "It's just too involved for me to perform in my astral form and I really need physical contact with the scythe. The only way I could even try it would be..."

"Would be..." Buffy prompted.

"I need a physical form there... and I don't have one... but my double," Willow said nervously.

"You want to _possess your double_?" Buffy exclaimed.

"No," Oz said quietly. "There's no way I'll let you do that."

"How do you plan to stop her?" Angel asked dryly.

Willow was staring at Oz in dismay. "I would never force her to do anything. In fact, the only way I would do it was with her permission."

"Use someone else," Oz insisted.

"I can't" Willow told him. "I can only do it with her 'cos we're technically the same person."

"This will all be completely moot unless we can rescue them," Jenny pointed out.

"Which brings us back to three days, fourteen hours and twenty... four minutes," Wade said dryly, checking the timer again.

Buffy propped her head up in her hands. "If Glory thinks she can trade them she'll be sending us some kind of messenger with a time and place, probably sometime soon."

"You think we can spring a trap?" Larry said.

"Probably not," Buffy said thoughtfully. "Glory may be insane, but she's not stupid. She'll insist on making the exchange somewhere she's secure."

"Maybe we should just wait and make the switch," Jenny suggested hopefully.

"Which would leave us trapped here for the next twenty-nine years," Arturo said snippily.

"Besides which, Glory won't trade Dawn and I don't intend to let my sister become a sacrifice to a deranged Goddess." Buffy frowned, deep in thought. "What if we can convince her to come to us in the open at a time and place of our choosing?" she said slowly, the beginning of an idea stirring in her mind.

"That would be ideal of course," Arturo said. "But unless you have some secret way of persuading her to walk directly into a quite obvious trap then it's just not possible."

"What did you have in mind?" Angel asked her gently.

Buffy forced herself not to snap at Arturo and focussed on her forming plan. "The best time would be right before the slide," she said. "That way we can get Dawn out right away and it won't matter if we can't kill Glory, because she's not got a hope without the key."

"But if the plan fails we won't have time to try anything else," Wade said.

"True," Buffy said, adjusting the plan slightly. "So what if we made it a few hours before the slide. That'll give us time for any counter strikes without giving Glory too much of an opportunity to come after us, especially if we can make her think we've already slid off this world."

"And it would give me an opportunity to activate the potentials with other me's help," Willow said helpfully, ignoring Oz's penetrating stare. "Once Dawn's left this world I don't think I'll be able to find it again, so that'll be my last chance."

"That puts us just after sunset three days from now," Angel said. "So I can be there."

"And it means all the civilians will be shut away for the night, so we should have no interruptions," Larry added.

"So all we need to do is find an empty place that we can control," Wade said.

"Not here," Jenny said quickly. "The school board allows us to operate out of the library right now, but if we start wrecking the place they'll kick us out and Rupert could lose his job."

"This is all well and good," Arturo interrupted. "But unless you can find a way to convince Glory to attack at a certain time and place this is all for nothing. Not to mention the fact that she is likely to kill them all if we don't go to the meeting you yourself have already said she will set up."

"That's the easy part," Buffy said smugly. "All we have to do is make it sound like it's in her best interests to attack us _then_, instead of trying to make the exchange earlier. She'll keep them alive as hostages for when she comes after us."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Arturo demanded.

"We've got people on the inside don't we?" Buffy smirked. "I'm sure Quinn and the others would pass on a little misinformation if we asked them to." She looked at Willow. "And we also have a way of communicating with them."

Willow grinned at her. "I'd be happy to."

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Quinn waited until the last vestiges of Willow's light spell receded before knocking as hard as he could on the door.

"What?" came the disgruntled voice on the other side of the door.

Willow had coached him on the best way to phrase his request. "We want to talk to your Mistress. We have information she will need."

The voice was joined by another in quiet discussion. Quinn couldn't make out what was said, but he distinctly heard the sound of footsteps moving away.

Time had no meaning in the darkness, but he was sure it was at least an hour before the footsteps returned, this time followed by the sharp, confident footfalls of a woman in high heels.

The door opened and light fell across the floor. Quinn scrambled to his feet just as Glory stepped in front of him.

"This had better be good, puny mortal," Glory said in a bored tone. "I was just about to send a messenger to your little friend."

"That's what we wanted to talk to you about," Rembrandt said hurriedly. "You see, we only have so much time on this world. When our device reaches zero the portal will open and we slide out of here, but if we miss the window we're stuck here for twenty-nine years."

"We can't miss the window," Quinn said. "And we don't know Buffy all that well. We don't think she'll make the switch. So that leaves us to bargain with you."

"Why wasn't I informed there was a time limit on this?" Glory said in exasperation. "I swear, my minions are completely useless."

"We know when the window is," Giles said from the back of the room. "And we know where she'll go for the slide."

"She has to leave from a specific place to increase her chances of going home," Quinn added.

"And where is this place?" Glory said, eyeing Quinn hungrily.

"Weatherby Park," Rembrandt told her. "At seven in the evening."

Glory's eyes were burning into Quinn's as if she were trying to read the truth there. "Excellent, so I can spring a little trap and take the timer. What's in it for you?"

"We don't care what you do with the girl," Quinn said, feigning disinterest. "Just let us come with you and return the timer when you're done with it. We can slide from your home world just as easily as we can this one."

Glory thought about it for only a moment before nodding. "Very well. Now tell me about your friend. My minion tells me she has powers." She ran her hand along Quinn's chest, looking up at him through heavily lidded eyes.

"She calls herself the Slayer," Quinn told her. "I think she's all talk, though. As far as I can tell she's just a normal little _girl_." He grinned at Glory suggestively.

Glory smiled seductively at him as she back-stepped towards the door. "You should give some thought to staying with me on my world," she said. "The people there worship me, you know. I could make you my High Priest."

Quinn tried not to let the disgust show on his features as the door closed and they were thrown into darkness once more.

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Lauren fingered her stake nervously, wondering if this was a good idea. Mr Giles and Mr Harris insisted that patrols shouldn't stop or the vampires would suspect there was something wrong. Well what was so bad about that? Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Five days ago Buffy Summers, the Slayer General, had jumped through some mysterious portal leading who knew where. While this alone might be a cause for concern – she could be anywhere after all – what was worse was the effect her absence caused in the world she left behind.

There had been well over a thousand Slayers just one week ago. One thousand girls with the power to force back the darkness. Now there were barely half that number and there were less and less all the time.

They weren't dying, which was a huge relief, no they were just losing their powers and turning back into the normal girls they'd been a year ago.

Lauren had been one of the first to be Called after the battle of Sunnydale. She'd been living a humdrum life of utter boredom in Chicago when this woman who called herself Faith had told her that she had a choice to make. At first it had all seemed so crazy. That was when Faith introduced her to her first vampire.

So Lauren had been trained as a Slayer and despite everything Faith had told her she'd enjoyed it. She'd even travelled to New York for a seminar run by Ms Summers with hundreds of other girls just like her and that was when she'd felt it. For once in her life she'd been part of something important and it had thrilled her. Ms Summers had been amazing, talking about not only the physical aspects of Slaying, but the psychological. Sometimes, on long nights when the vampires were hunting in droves she thought of the advice Ms Summers had imparted that day and felt like she could take on anything.

Never again would she wake up to her boring life, go about the same routine; school, hanging out with her friends, doing homework and going home to bed. She still went to school, only now she had 

some new friends who were like her and while her old friends went home to bed she was out keeping them safe. She was special now and she was so proud of that fact.

Now she was likely to lose that one thing that made her special and she would be boring again. An unremarkable girl in a remarkable world and she couldn't tell anyone except her parents. It would be like this whole amazing year never happened, except she had made enemies as all Slayers do and once they knew she was defenceless they would come for her and she would die. Maybe her whole family would die with her. Sixteen boring years followed by one fantastic one and it would all end, snuffed out like it never was. She was going to be seventeen in three weeks. Would she live that long?

It had come as a shock when they'd realised that they were all going to lose their powers, but after a while there had come numb acceptance. They hadn't had the power all that long, after all. It was like an unreal dream that was coming to an end.

The orders had come down the line that the two girl teams they usually patrolled in were to be paired up. Lauren and her usual partner, Doaa, had been teamed up with another two girls Lauren knew from school, but never really hung out with. She and Doaa were the more experienced of the four as they'd been Called much earlier and Doaa, an Egyptian girl who had moved here after her Calling was actually one of the few girls who had known about the supernatural before becoming a Slayer. Their new comrades in arms, Jessica and Vicky were much younger, one fifteen and the other fourteen and had only recently been Called. Lauren hoped their inexperience wouldn't get all four of them killed tonight.

Still it was only a routine patrol and they should be home soon to retire for a few hours of sleep before beginning another day.

At that moment a scream tore through the air and the four Slayers were off and running as instinct took over.

Lauren and Doaa paused to survey the scene. It looked like a gang of vampires surrounding a young couple, a common sight these days; with so many Slayers the vampires had stopped hunting alone and begun to roam in packs. Jessica and Vicky barrelled past them and into the fray with all the eagerness of new Slayers.

Lauren exchanged a wry grin with Doaa before the two of them ran to join the battle. Lauren could feel the adrenaline beginning to pump and revelled in the freedom of being one of the strongest people alive.

Doaa stumbled and Lauren stopped to pull her to her feet. She was about to continue on when she noticed the stricken look on her friends face. "It's gone," she whispered in a horrified voice.

Lauren didn't need to ask what she meant. It had been happening everywhere. Girls would be going about their lives when they suddenly felt the power leave them. Doaa was no longer a Slayer.

"Run," she yelled. Doaa would no longer be of any use here and staying would only get her killed. Not staying to make sure her order was followed Lauren barrelled into the nearest vampire, her stake in hand.

She wouldn't cry, she wouldn't. Doaa was alive at least, just normal. It was only a matter of time before the same thing happened to her, but not now. For now she was a Slayer and she had a job to do.

Her ferocity surprised even her. This could be the last fight she ever fought and she would be victorious. The young couple had run away as soon as Jessica and Vicky had attacked and Doaa should be leaving too. Two other Slayers fought beside her and they were winning. It wouldn't be much longer before the vampires tried to flee.

Someone was screaming. Lauren glanced up from her rampage to see Doaa held down in a vampire's vice-like grip, his face buried in her neck.

"No," Lauren screamed and tried to get there, to do anything, to save Doaa, but vampires leapt into her path and every moment she was delayed Doaa's struggles became weaker, her skin grew paler and her breathing shallower.

With an inhuman effort Lauren shook off the vampire before her and plunged her stake through the heart of the one that held Doaa.

Doaa fell to the ground as the vampire crumbled to dust and Lauren was at her side. Her chest was still and there was no pulse. Lauren peeled back her closed eyelids to see the irises had started to glaze over. Doaa was dead.

Now Lauren did cry as she stood and with a feral scream of rage, raised her stake in the air and charged.

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A/N: Actually managed to get this up on time. Go me. We're getting towards the end now, only 3 chapters left.

Next time: The Trap.

Nat.


	11. The Trap

Chapter 11.

As Buffy waited in Weatherby Park, two hours before the slide her mind wandered over everything that could possibly go wrong. What if Glory didn't believe Quinn? If she didn't turn up there was almost no way for them to rescue Dawn and the others. She would sacrifice her own chance of getting home to save Dawn from Glory. Besides, She had Quinn now, the mastermind behind sliding. She might decide to wait and have him create a new sliding device instead of coming after theirs if she thought it not worth the effort of taking it from them.

Buffy forced herself to relax. Glory was impatient and arrogant to a fault. She couldn't possibly believe they were a threat to her and wouldn't want to waste time in getting to her home dimension.

The real question was: would she guess this was a trap? She'd never been particularly gifted at reading people, but she wasn't an idiot. If she guessed then she might do anything... bring anything to bear against them.

Buffy glanced about herself once more time to make sure the others were concealed. Quinn had told Glory that Buffy would be sliding alone from here in about five minutes, they'd been here for six hours, not wanting to give Glory the opportunity to get there first and prepare. Surely Glory wasn't going to leave it until the last minute. She should be here at any moment.

The last three days had been fairly manic. Buffy had spent nearly all her time with Amanda, teaching her everythig she could to prepare her for the fight. Were Amanda a normal girl it would have been impossible, but her Slayer side gave her the ability to instinctively use many weapons.

While Buffy and Amanda had been going through an accelerated training programme Larry was doing something similar with Wade and Arturo, though at a more casual pace while Oz, Jenny and Willow co-ordinated the plan. Willow hadn't been around as much as Buffy would have liked, between checking on Glory's prisoners and spending time back on their own world researching as many spells as she could, including a way to first possess alternate Willow and then cast the spell to activate the potentials through her.

Two minutes left and Buffy was starting to feel somewhat antsy. Where was Glory? Was she really so confident of her own abilities that She thought she could just march over, take the timer and leave?

One minute and Buffy was really nervous now. Glory hadn't believed them, or she'd mistaken the time, or something equally awful had happened to disrupt the plan. If Glory didn't show up then they had little over an hour to find Glory's headquarters – something they'd had absolutely no luck in over the past eight days so why should they manage it now? – break in and rescue Dawn and the others or they would be trapped here. She ordered herself not to think like that. Glory would be here any moment, she'd come stomping through those gates with Dawn and the others and demand Buffy hand over the timer.

Ten seconds until the fake deadline and still no sign of her. Buffy gazed anxiously at her watch as it slipped past the appointed time. Glory was officially late.

Willow's voice spoke in her mind. "She's not coming."

"No," Buffy agreed silently.

"What do we do now?"

Buffy sighed and headed towards where the others were hiding. "I'm sorry, Will."

"You're not coming home?" Willow said aloud, materialising to walk at Buffy's side.

"I can't," Buffy said seriously. "I can't leave her here."

"What about us?" Willow asked worriedly. "Slayers are dying. Girls are dying. If you don't come home..."

"There was only ever a small chance of us getting home anyway," Buffy said bitterly. "You know that."

Willow nodded. "I guess it's the difference between little chance and no way, no how, that's bothering me here."

"You'll come visit, right?" Buffy said.

Willow raised her arm as if to wrap it about Buffy's shoulders, but dropped it when it just passed through. "Try and keep me away."

"I can't believe this is happening," Wade said, joining them. "We've been sliding for over two years and now, that's it. We're never going to get home."

"You and the Professor should go," Buffy told her. "I'll stay and I promise you I'll get them out."

"I'm not leaving without Quinn and Rembrandt," Wade said defiantly. "And I know the Professor feels the same way."

Buffy couldn't blame her. The four sliders had become a strange sort of family, just as Willow, Xander and Giles had become for her. There was no way they could leave half their group behind.

"Better to stay here, together, than to go on alone never knowing," Arturo said, as he arrived with Jenny, Oz and Larry.

"Well that's settled," Wade said, her voice falsely bright as she pretended she didn't mind that she would never see her home again. "Now what?"

Buffy turned to Willow. "Are you sure you've tried everything to find Glory? There's not some spell that can find her?"

"I even tried having Wade look up Ben on the internet," Willow said. "Nothing. If I didn't know better I'd say he didn't exist on this world, but we have to believe he does or Glory would be completely invincible."

"We should head back to the library," Jenny suggested. "It's better than standing out in the open where we're a target for any demon that feels like a snack and we're not accomplishing anything here."

It was a sombre group that slowly walked through the park, joined by Angel and Amanda.

As they passed through the large iron gates Buffy froze, and a voice she had hoped never to hear again pierced through the night.

"Well, what do we have here?"

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The illuminous hands on Quinn's watch had read six in the evening on the day of the slide, when the door had opened and the five prisoners had been dragged unceremoniously through long corridors and out onto the street. Giles, Quinn and Rembrandt had their hands tied behind their backs. For some reason their captors didn't seem to feel Willow and Dawn were a threat. Their mistake, as far as Quinn was concerned. He may not know either girl very well, but he could sense Dawn was a spitfire when provoked and Willow... well Willow had jumped on the back of that Gree when they were attacked back at the library, she clearly had unexpected reserves of courage.

They'd followed the demons through empty streets. Quinn wasn't surprised when they eventually reached some large gates with the words Weatherby Park above them. They were here.

He expected the attack to happen immediately. Astral-Willow had told them their friends planned to be in place several hours before and Glory would proabably be able to see Buffy standing alone in the park, but they waited. Glory paced nearby, sending her minions to nearby hiding places except for those few guarding the prisoners and they were hurried around a corner and out of sight. Everyone was silent and Quinn was filled with the urge to shout out to his friends in the park that they were here, but held his tongue when one of the demons held a knife to Willow's throat.

"What's going on?" Rembrandt whispered urgently. "If we don't get in there soon we'll miss the slide. We had a deal. And what's with tying us up?"

"My Godess can sense the duplicity in a man's soul," one of the demons said evilly. "She knew you lied and used your lies against you. We couldn't tell you before now, you see, her magnificence realised that you had a way of communicating with your friends, but you told her exactly where they would be and when and now she will kill them all and take your device for herself." The demons all looked exceptionally pleased with themselves. "We will jouney to the Holy Realm and live amongst the Gods for all eternity."

Quinn exchanged a horrified look with Rembrandt. The plan was falling apart around them and they only had a little bit of time left before they were stuck here forever.

Voices cut through the silence, coming towards them. Quinn could only guess the time for the fake slide had come and gone and that the others had given up.

He couldn't see anything from his current position, but in his mind's eye he pictured Wade and the others leaving the park only to be confronted by Glory.

"Well, what do we have here?"

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Buffy drew back slightly as Glory stepped out of the shadows, smiling evilly.

"You're too late," she said. "The window's already gone. You can't get home."

"Silly girl," Glory said, still smiling. "Did you really think you could fool me so easily? That I would just walk into your trap? I'm a God, little girl. I looked into their hearts and saw their lies. You could save yourself an awful lot of trouble if you just handed the device over to me, right now."

Buffy glared at her defiantly.

"No? Well, OK then. Minions." Glory snapped her fingers at something Buffy couldn't see. There was a scuffle and a large group emerged.

Buffy's eyes raked over the demonic visages and the worried looks on the faces of Giles and Quinn. She ignored Rembrandt and even Willow's tearful face, searching out the one person she had worried about the most over the last week.

Dawn seemed none the worse for wear. Tired, perhaps and maybe a little scared, but she held herself proudly as she met Buffy' gaze. She nodded slightly. Dawn was ready to fight.

"Let them go," Buffy demanded. "And maybe we can work something out. This doesn't have to become a battle."

"Why make a deal when I can just take what I want by force?" Glory said happily. "And I do so like force. It just makes me so happy." She walked over to where the captives were standing and ran a finger down Willow's cheek, catching a tear and wiping it on her dress. "I'll tell you what, you hand over the device and I'll release some of your friends without a fight. I'm afraid I can't let you have my key though. You see, I need her."

"You'll never make it work without us," Arturo said. "The device is highly complex and there isn't much time before the slide. If you want to leave this place you need us."

Glory's hand travelled to Quinn's shoulder and she pressed up against him slightly. "Is that true, cutey?" she asked him sweetly.

"Yeah," Quinn said, cringing away from her. "The whole process would take hours, maye even days to exlain properly. You don't have that much time. How much do you know about the Einsteen-Ro-"

"Whatever," Glory said waving a hand. "I don't want to understand it, I just want to _use_ it. Tell me how to do that."

"It's not that easy," Quinn argued. "You don't just press a button and the vortex opens, there's a whole lot more to it than that."

"You're lying," Glory hissed, pushing away from him. "I can see it in your worthless mind. It really is that simple and I don't need any of you. All I need is the device and my key." She poked one of the demons. "Kill them" she ordered.

Demons seemed to melt from between nearby houses and jumped from low tree branches. Buffy knew from experience that they weren't particularly strong. She had a much more difficult fight ahead of her.

She ducked under a fist that was swung far too wide to do any damage and kicked out, sending the demon reeling towards Larry. Most of her friends had pulled out various weapons by now and were getting into the thick of the battle.

It took her a moment to realise that Angel was at her side as she weaved through the mass of demons towards the captives. Free them first, she decided. They could do with the help and that would leave her to deal with Glory.

Each of her friends were being held between two demons. When Buffy reached them she went first to the ones holding Dawn, knocking one away as if she were swatting a fly. As she turned to the second she noticed the momentary flicker of his eyes and turned, just as Glory grabbed her neck and hoisted her into the air with one hand.

"They say you have superpowers," Glory said with a vapid look in her eyes. "Do you really?"

Buffy choked and tried to break the Goddesses grip, but to no avail. Spots were appearing before her eyes and she knew she didn't have much time left. Desperately she kicked out, but she might as well have been kicking a wall.

Then Angel was there, and the fist to the side of her face caught Glory off guard and she let go. Buffy dropped to the ground, gasping for air as Glory's arm swung around, knocking Angel off his feet and back into the thick of the battle.

Glory crouched next to Buffy as she wheezed and sucked in as much oxygen as she could. "You don't seem all that special to me. What was it they called you? Oh yeah. Slayer. Kind of a stupid name isn't it? Can't really see you slaying much of anything, tiny human."

"I'm much stronger than I look," Buffy told her, standing. She needed to get Glory on the run and away from the prisoners so that Angel could rescue them and to do that she needed... "Amanda!"

The scythe spun through the air. Buffy reached out and caught it easily, swinging it round and settling it into a comfortable grip.

"Ooh, what are you gonna do with that?" Glory mocked her. "Slay me?"

"Works for me," Buffy shot back. The scythe was already in motion, whistling through the air and smacking into Glory's side with enough strength behind it to cut most things cleanly in two. Unfortunately Glory wasn't human, or even a demon and while it didn't bounce off, it didn't do as much damage as Buffy would have liked either.

Glory stared down at the rip in her dress and the sliced flesh below it. "You _hurt_ me!" she said incredulously. "You stupid little... human. How dare you hurt me?"

Buffy spun on her heel and launched herself into the midst of the fighting. She had Glory's attention now, all she had to do was keep it.

Glory was following her, so intent that she didn't realise it was her own demons she was throwing out of her path. Buffy somersaulted over Arturo and the demon he was fighting and dodged to the right to avoid Amanda. She darted into the park where there was a clear space, Glory right behind her.

"OK, so I admit you might be a little stronger than most humans," Glory said derisively. "But you can't hope to match my power."

"I don't have to match it," Buffy pointed out. "I just have to wear you down."

Glory's eyes narrowed upon the scythe in Buffy's hand. "Pretty axe."

"It's more than pretty," Buffy said smugly. "It has the power to kill Gods." Buffy's gaze flickered to the wound on Glory's side and she smirked slightly. "Wanna test it out?"

This time she struck with the pointed end, hoping to get in a clean hit while the night was still young, but Glory easily side-stepped it.

"It is so on, little Slayer."

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Dawn watched anxiously as Glory chased Buffy into the park where she could no longer see what was happening. Buffy could take care of herself, she assured herself, struggling futilely against the demon that still held her. She was the one who needed help.

Lights were winking on in the nearby houses and faces were being pressed up against windows, but nobody came out to help. It was so unlike the Sunnydale she was used to. True, nobody would have helped them there either, but nor would any of the locals even have looked outside their windows if they heard a commotion.

Angel cut through the crowd, knocking demons out of his path. At some point over the ast three days someone had mentioned that there was an Angel alive on this world, so she was prepared to see him here. Poor Buffy would have had no such warning and Angel had always meant so much more to her.

The demon holding her was sent flying and Dawn immediately turned to help the others. Even as Angel took out the two holding Rembrandt she punched the demon next to Willow, remembering all the lessons her sister had given her and stole the thing's knife, slashing it across the stomach. As it lumbered off she started hacking at Rembrandt's bonds.

Willow seemed past tears now and she was glaring at the demon army with vengeance in her eyes. Dawn was uncomfortably reminded of when her own Willow turned evil and shuddered.

By now the demons in the immediate area had either been taken care of or had fled, leaving Angel and the former captives alone. Dawn cut into Giles' bonds with gusto, barely noticing as Angel gave her an appraising look and a nod before darting back into the melee.

"Here," Dawn said and handed Willow the knife. "Free Quinn."

"Where are you going?" Willow hissed, taking the knife as if it were a snake.

"I'm going to help my sister."

Rembrandt grabbed her arm before she could leave. "Are you sure that's a good idea, sweetheart?" he asked gently. "She can take care of herself, after all."

"We can't take the risk that Glory would use you as a hostage again," Quinn agreed, massaging his wrists.

Dawn shook him off. She knew they were right, but she didn't really want to hear it. She'd been held prisoner for eight days, now all she wanted was to be with Buffy, where she would be safe.

She didn't follow Buffy's route through the crowd, instead creeping along the sidelines, hoping to go unnoticed for now. Silently she slipped through the park gates and stared at the scene before her.

Glory's dress was cut in multiple places and Dawn could see blood beneath some of them. One of her high heels had broken and she moved with an awkward gait.

Buffy, although not visibly bleeding anywhere, was also looking a little bit rough. Dark marks around her neck showed where Glory had tried to throttle her and bruises marked her face.

The scythe made its trademark whistle as it once more cut the air and Gloy shrieked as her skin was broken.

"Buffy," Dawn called. She needed to let her sister know she was alright.

But the moment of distraction was all Glory needed to take on the defensive and Buffy took a hard uppercut to her shin that lifted her off her feet and sent her sailing through the air. Dawn winced at the thump she made as her body hit the turf.

"How did you escape, key?" Glory said to her.

Dawn backed up. "Leave my sister alone."

"Key, you don't have a sister. You're a ball of energy trapped in human form," Glory held out one hand to her. "Come to me and I can release you from this shell. You and I will be together forever. I'll protect you and love you and care for you. What more could you ask for?"

Dawn looked over to where Buffy was pulling herself painfully to her feet. "My freedom."

"She's not strong enough to save you, Key," Glory whispered. "Just let go and it'll be painless. All you have to do is help me get home. I'll even let you sister go."

Not for the first time, Dawn wondered about that. It wasn't really such a terrible request. That was all she wanted too. The first time around they hadn't been able to let Glory do it, because not only did that mean Dawn herself would die, but the barriers between dimensions would drop and all manner of nasty things could come through and wreak havoc on the world. This time it could be achieved with a timer and just Dawn's death.

And Dawn would happily die if it meant that Buffy would be saved. All her life Buffy had been the hero and she'd been the one needing saving, but what if it were the other way around now? There was no Dagon Sphere or troll hammer this time. But Dawn could save her, could save all of them, if she just gave Glory what she wanted.

No, Buffy wouldn't just give up and neither would she. They'd won tougher battles than this and they would again. Buffy may not have the hammer this time, but she had the scythe, a mystical weapon that was made to be wielded by the Slayer.

She raced to Buffy's side and steadied her. "You OK?" she asked worriedly as Buffy leaned on her slightly.

"Been better," Buffy tried to smile at her, but it looked more like a grimace. "Just need a breather."

Glory was watching them carefully, making her way towards them in an unhurried way.

"I don't think you're gonna get it," Dawn said.

Buffy didn't answer. Instead she jumped high into the air, slashing downwards with the scythe and lopping off a chunk of Glory's hair and slicing into her neck, normally a killing blow.

Glory picked at the uneven ends of her hair. "Now this has gone entirely too far," she hissed and lunged for Buffy, but she was already flipping away.

"Get out of here, Dawn," she called. "Help the others."

Dawn glanced back to the main battle. From what she could see there was no clear winners. The demons may not be terribly powerful, but most of their side were woefully untrained. Astral-Willow was zipping in and out of sight, blasting off powerful spells and evening out the odds and... was that Amanda? She was moving with Slayer speed and hitting with the kind of strength Dawn usually associated with Buffy. Willow hadn't mentioned the name of the second Slayer they had working with them. Dawn couldn't be happier to see the girl she'd once called friend.

"Dawn," Buffy called. "Go."

With one last final look at where her sister was fighting furiously for her life against an enraged Goddess Dawn turned and ran. She was suddenly very aware of the knife she'd taken from the demon earlier, still clutched in her hand. It was time to do some damage.

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Amanda had never felt so energised, even this long into a fight she was so... alive right now. It was the most unbelievable feeling. She was queen of the battlefield, well after Buffy. She was in charge, she was amazing. She was the fastest, strongest woman alive.

A fist came out of nowhere and sent her reeling. Amanda cursed and made a mental note to pay more attention in future. Buffy had warned her that a moment of inattention could mean the difference between life and death. They'd finally started the Slayer line off again. She didn't plan to go down in history as the first Slayer of the new line who only lasted four days. That would just be embarrassing.

She wished she could be fighting Glory, but Buffy had insisted. Amanda knew she could get the job done if only Buffy would trust her. She could help at least. It would be more challenging than this.

A scream rent through the air, over the clanging of blades and the cries coming from both sides. Amanda paused and looked around.

Glory was holding the girl she assumed was Buffy's sister Dawn by the hair, glaring at Buffy angrily. Compared to the neatly coiffured woman that had stepped out of the shadows earlier this was a completely different person. Her once elegant black dress was almost shredded, with only scraps clinging to her and protecting her dignity though Amanda doubted the Goddess would care. Blood leaked through from cuts that would be insignificant if it weren't for the sheer number of them and her hair was now distinctly uneven where Buffy had cropped it with the scythe. At some point she'd lost her shoes and now seemed much smaller and far less threatening.

But she had a hostage now and Buffy seemed too wary to try anything, but while Glory concentrated on the older Slayer Amanda had the perfect opportunity to sneak up on her.

What she didn't count on was Glory's incredible reflexes. Tired as she obviously was, Glory spun around, her arm striking out and knocking Amanda high into the air. She hit the floor hard, a snapping noise coming from her arm.

It hurt like nothing she had ever imagined as she used her good arm to push herself up. Buffy was giving her a disappointed look and Glory was pulling Dawn up and grabbing her by the waist. Then she was gone, so quickly she almost seemed to blur.

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Quinn stared in the direction Glory had fled. The demons seemed to melt back into the shadows, leaving their fallen brethren behind.

"Everyone OK?" Wade called out.

"Nothing life threatening," Arturo announced, holding onto a wound that ran down the sideof his arm. "It's not deep," he assured her. "I can get it looked at later."

Quinn grinned as Wade threw herself into his arms and hugged him tightly. "We thought we'd lost you, then when Glory didn't show up..." She disentangled herself from Quinn's arms and launched herself at Rembrandt.

Arturo was there a second later, patting Quinn on the back. "Good to see you, my boy."

Quinn was going to reply when he caught sight of Buffy. She was staring after Glory and Dawn, a lost look on her face.

"How long until the slide?" Quinn asked quietly.

Arturo pulled the timer from his coat pocket. "A little over an hour."

"We can't leave without Dawn," Quinn insisted.

"As much as I hate to say it, it's not possible," Arturo muttered. "We've been looking for Glory's hideout for over a week and we've found nothing. We have no chance of finding it in an hour."

"We just came from there," Quinn pointed out. "We may have been blindfolded, but we can try and lead you back."

"Would you risk the slide?" Arturo asked. "It may come down to choosing between saving the girl, or getting home."

"She'll know it's too late to use our vortex by now, Professor," Quinn said slowly. "She might kill Dawn."

"Or she knows we'll come after her and give her the opportunity to slide from her own home," Arturo said, his voice rising slightly.

"We can try, can't we?" Rembrandt asked and Wade who was still hugging him gave Arturo a pleading look.

"And what, pray tell, will we do when we get there?" Arturo demanded. "Unless you've forgotten we're still facing a Goddess here and with Miss Collin's broken arm we are a warrior down. Miss Summers could not take her out and she is our most powerful ally."

"She's alone now, though," Wade said thoughtfully. "All of us against her, we'll wear her down."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Buffy said from behind her. "She wouldn't have run if she wasn't already pretty weak and she had to use her powers to get out of here so fast and that tends to take a lot out of her." She gazed thoughtfully at the four sliders. "I can't ask you to help me. All of you, you've already done enough. I won't blame you if you just want to slide from here. I have to save Dawn, but she's my responsibility, not yours."

"You wouldn't even be here, either of you, if we hadn't slid onto your world," Quinn said vehemently. "We can slide from Glory's place as easily as we can the park. We'll try at least." He looked around at his fellow sliders. Wade and Rembrandt seemed all for it, only the Professor had any doubts.

"Oh, very well, we'll give it a go, but don't blame me if things go terribly wrong," Arturo threw up his hands in defeat.

"Thank you," Buffy said gratefully.

"We still don't know exactly where this place is," Arturo said pointedly. "We have an hour to find it."

"No problem." Willow popped into being between Quinn and Arturo, making both men jump. "I put a tracking spell on Dawn. I know exactly where she was, right up until she stepped through Glory's wards. I can lead you there."

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A/N: Only two more chapters left! I'll try to get the next one up next week, but I can't promise anything as some very annoying people have decided to take up all my evenings and saturday morning because it's not like I have anything better to do, right? By sunday I'll probably be so exhausted I'll just sleep all day. Oh well, I will try my best.

It seems I put up the wrong chapter title next week. This is actually the chapter called the Trap. I have fixed it now.

Thanks to those who reviewed. You really do motivate me to keep going when I feel like giving up.

Nat


	12. The Child

Chapter 12.

"Can you break through them?" Buffy asked anxiously as Willow examined the walls of the palatial building, in front of which they now stood.

They had followed the tracking spell here and according to Willow this was where Dawn was right before she disappeared behind Glory's powerful wards. Right in front of these beautiful oak doors.

Willow laid her hand against the wall and Buffy was amazed that it didn't pass right through, she was incorporeal after all. At least she didn't receive a shock like Rembrandt had when he'd tried to open the door upon their arrival.

"This is definitely the place," she said solemnly. "These wards are so strong even ghosts couldn't get past them."

"You're stronger than a ghost," Buffy said pointedly.

"Usually, yeah, but we're not on our world here, Buff. A witch draws her power from the earth on which she stands, but I'm a projection on a _parallel_ earth. All I have is the power I sent with me. I used an awful lot of that in the fight earlier and I've no way to draw more without returning back to our world."

"Um, maybe," local-Willow, looked nervously between Buffy and her counterpart. "You said something before about merging with me to do the Slayer-spell. Couldn't you do that to draw power from this earth?"

Wicca-Willow stared at her in amazement for a long moment.

Local-Willow bit her lip nervously and glanced up at wicca-Willow. "Or not. If you think it's a bad idea I'm sure you can think of something better."

"No," Willow said quickly. "It's a great idea, I'm just surprised I didn't think of it. Are you sure though? You'll be pretty much giving up all control to me."

"I..." other-Willow glanced nervously at Oz who was watching the whole exchange closely. "If it will help then I want to do it."

"OK, then," Willow nodded firmly. "I just need a few moments to prepare and then we'll try it."

"The clock is ticking," Buffy called after her as the two Willow's moved away.

"We have about thirty-five minutes," Quinn confirmed with a glance at the timer.

As they watched wicca-Willow seemed to step towards other-Willow only to then step _into_ her. The two women were a blur for a moment before they settled into the form of the Willow resident on this earth.

"Did it work?" Wade whispered.

"Yeah, I'm in here and the union seems pretty strong," Willow said in a slightly choral voice as if both of the souls inhabiting the body were talking at once. "My counterpart is OK. It's weird, I can 

actually feel both of us in here. She has a great amount of unlocked potential. I'm in control at the moment, but I think if she really tried she'd be able to take it from me."

"If anything happens to her..." Oz said in a deceptively calm voice.

"I'll look after her," Willow promised.

"She's probably safer right now than she would be alone," Buffy said comfortingly. "She's got Will's power to protect her."

"Time to get this party started," Willow said, flexing her fingers experimentally.

Wade's eyes lit up at the chance to see more magic close up.

It took Willow well over ten minutes to break through the wards, ten minutes in which they witnessed a spectacular light show even as they were all checking the time constantly, well aware the time was fast approaching when they would either have to leave Dawn behind or decide to stay here for the next twenty-nine years.

The wards finally collapsed with one last flicker and Willow seemed to collapse against Oz who was standing close at her side. "They're down, better get in quick, before she notices. I don't know how soon she can get them up again."

Quinn cautiously approached the door, his hand inching towards the handle and slowly closing around it when he realised he wasn't going to be shocked. It opened easily. Glory probably didn't feel the need to actually lock the door with all her fancy wards in place.

They entered into a large reception room with a beautiful hard wood floor leading to a sweeping staircase. Buffy reached out with her senses, but couldn't feel anything. Either Glory wasn't close by or her wards were still masking her presence.

"Can you sense anything?" she asked Willow quietly.

"Nothing," Willow said regretfully. "I only took down the wards keeping us out, not the ones that were stopping us from tracking her here."

"Then we'd better start searching every room," Buffy said, resenting the fact that they would be wasting still more time searching the large building while their precious time was being whittled away.

They split up, always staying within hearing range of the others, progressing up onto the second floor when Wade spotted a few patches of blood on the stairs.

"We're cutting it pretty close," Buffy complained as she, Rembrandt and Angel checked yet another room.

"That eager to get away from here?" Angel asked sadly.

Buffy glanced at Rembrandt who walked ahead of them slightly. "Don't get me wrong, there are some good things about this world," Buffy said smiling warmly at him. "It's just not my home. I miss 

my friends. No matter how much these people may look like them they aren't the people I know."

"I'm not the Angel you know," Angel said, looking away.

"In so many ways you are," Buffy said, taking his hand in hers. "But no, not really."

"You really loved him."

"Yeah," Buffy sighed. "I often felt we were soul mates." She felt Angel tense beside her and glanced up at him. "What's wrong?"

Angel studied her intently. "I keep having this dream. All these vague phrases coming out of the darkness. The words 'soul mate,' keep coming up."

"Do you think it's a vision?" Buffy asked curiously.

"I... no it's just a dream," Angel assured her.

Buffy nodded and let it drop. If he wanted to tell her about it he would, and if not.. well she would be gone soon and he would have to figure it out alone.

"So, tell me honestly, are you glad to be leaving?" Angel murmured.

"I'll be glad to get home," Buffy shrugged. "There are things I'll miss about this world, people I'll miss." She didn't have to say who would be at the top of that list. "We still haven't activated the potentials, but even if we had, Amanda isn't ready to lead them. I haven't had enough time, there's still so much I have to teach her. The Council will walk all over her."

"I'll help her," Angel promised. "For as long as I'm able."

From a little way down the corridor Wade waved frantically at them. Buffy hurried over, Angel and Rembrandt close on her heels.

"We can hear a voice coming from this room," Wade whispered as the group gathered.

The door they stood around looked exactly the same as the others along the hallway, but from the distance between it and the doors on either side Buffy guessed that this was one led to a bigger room than the rest they had seen.

Buffy gestured to the others to get back, took a step froward and brought her right leg up, her foot impacting the door and splintering it even as it fell away from the wall to crash on the floor inside the room.

"Buffy," a voice from within screamed.

"I'm here, Dawn," Buffy called, striding confidently over the debris, taking a quick look around to gather her bearings.

It was a throne room of sorts, decorated in rich purples with a mahogany floor. Glory, still looking bloodied and beaten, but still Glory, sat on an ornate throne. She'd gotten rid of her broken heels. Dawn was tied to a chair at her feet.

Buffy wasn't sure how long they had left until the slide, but she was sure their remaining minutes were down to single figures and if there was the slightest chance of getting out of here this needed to be done quickly.

"OK, just this once, because I'm in a hurry, I'll give you the option to just hand Dawn over now and we'll leave."

"I'll tell you what, sweetie," Glory said, leaning forward in her chair to stare intently at Buffy. "You leave the device and I won't kill your cute little sis when I use her blood to tear my way out of this world. I can't promise she won't die when I bring all the walls down, but hey!"

Buffy raised her eyebrows. Like she'd ever expected Glory just to give up. She swung the scythe around from the modified scabbard on her back and, with Angel at her side, ran to attack.

Glory held up one hand, seemingly unruffled by the coming assault. "You didn't think I wasted all my minions on that one attack did you?" She raised her hands and clapped sharply.

A door off to the side opened and half a dozen demons charged in.

"You guys take out the cavalry," Buffy called over her shoulder. "Angel and I can handle Glory. Quinn, get Dawn." Without waiting to see if her orders were obeyed she leapt forward, the scythe already swinging.

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Quinn was very aware that they only had a matter of moments left before the slide, which meant that they would have to do this incredibly quickly, or leave with the job undone. Worse still, they could be forced to stay here, just to make sure Glory never hurt anyone again.

He dodged around the figures battling in the centre of the room. While Angel and Buffy moved with the agility of trained warriors, Glory seemed to have more of a blunt fighting style. She could just hit out with all her strength and know that her opponent was down. That tactic wasn't working right now though, because she was simply unable to land a blow on either opponent. She was tiring fast and Quinn hoped it wouldn't be long before this mysterious Ben appeared.

He finally dropped down next to the chair Dawn was tied to and pulled out the knife Larry had given him outside. As he began to saw through the ropes holding her down he heard a beeping noise from across the room that made his blood run cold.

Arturo had heard it too and run out of the immediate fighting, timer in hand. He pointed it to the wall nearest him and moments later the familiar vortex opened up, bathing the room in a flickering blue light.

"Miss Wells, Mr Brown, hurry," Arturo called. He glanced over at Quinn who suddenly remembered what he was supposed to be doing and renewed his hacking at the ropes. He'd promised Buffy he would get her out.

Moments later she was free and Quinn dragged her to her feet, pushing her in Arturo's direction. "Go," he told her.

"Not without Buffy," she insisted.

"She wanted you to slide with us," Quinn said desperately. She may not have said it in as many words, but he was pretty certain Buffy would want Dawn away from here. "I'll make sure she comes too."

"No." Dawn darted towards her sister, even as Wade made it to the Professors side.

Arturo tried to wave Wade through, but she shrugged him off, intent on the scene before her. "Quinn," she yelled.

"I have to get Dawn," he called back and ran after the younger girl.

He had to leap over a downed demon to get to her. "Come on," he said grabbing her arm.

Dawn was watching her sister fighting Glory. As they watched Glory's arm struck out and Buffy was thrown into a wall, the scythe clattering down beside her. She didn't get up.

"Buffy," Dawn cried and struggled out of Quinn's grip, running to her sister's side.

She never got there. Glory caught her hair in one fist and dragged her towards the vortex, a knife in one hand.

"Quinn, come on, we've gotta go," Remmy called, but Quinn knew he couldn't. He had to help Dawn. There were only seconds left before the window would be closed.

Glory was chanting something under her breath, the knife raised above Dawn's head to strike.

"Go," Quinn screamed at his friends, who were dawdling in front of the vortex, waiting for him. "Don't wait for me."

He launched himself at Glory, hoping against hope that his friends would just leave. There was no point in all of them staying behind.

Glory batted him away as though he were nothing more meddlesome than a fly. He rolled, across the ground, knocking someone over as he went. His head hit the ground hard.

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Buffy picked herself up just in time to see Quinn knock over Larry and the demon he was fighting. Even as they went down in a tangle of limbs Wade and Rembrandt ran to help their friend. Arturo was standing helplessly by the vortex, the timer held tightly in one hand. Glory was still chanting.

There wasn't time to think, no time to gether her strength, only time to act.

She dodged around Willow and kicked the last demon out of her way on her path to Glory. The scythe lay forgotten on the floor behind her so Buffy used the only weapon she had left. Herself.

She grabbed the hand holding the knife and wrenched it away from Dawn. Glory tried to shake her off, but there was no way Buffy was letting go now.

Angel appeared as if from nowhere and grabbed Dawn around the waist, removing her from Glory's slackened grip and physically hoisting her towards the vortex. Dawn clung to him. "No I won't go."

"Dawn, please," Buffy shouted, even as she clung to Glory's wrist.

"No!" Dawn tore herself from Angel's grip and leapt upon Glory's back.

It was about then that Buffy realised the portal was shrinking. She watched helplessly as their escape route disappeared. They were trapped here, forever.

Her moment of inattention cost her as Glory finally managed to throw her off, catching her a glancing blow to her temple.

"Buffy!"

Instinctively, Buffy turned to the voice in time to see the scythe hurtling through the air towards her. She caught it easily, already turning back to the fray.

Glory was starting to struggle, Buffy noticed with some relief. Shame it couldn't have happened earlier. As Dawn dropped off Glory's back and Angel darted under a backhanded swipe Buffy stepped in close and swung high. Glory managed to duck under the first swing, but she couldn't manage to leap over the second. She went down, breathing hard.

As they gathered around Buffy saw the only remaining demon creep from the room, knowing his mistress was beaten.

"This isn't the end," Glory said from between teeth clenched in pain. "You can't kill me. I'll get strong again and come for you when you least expect it."

"I don't have to kill _you_," Buffy said, kneeling next to her. "But in case you've forgotten, you've got a mortal side."

"You could do that?" Glory gasped. "Kill an innocent. I thought you were supposed to be a hero."

"I never claimed to be a hero," Buffy said. "And I'll do what I have to, to keep Dawn safe. And if Ben is anything like I remember, he'd die just to get rid of _you_."

"Ben?" Glory asked, her eyes clouding in confusion.

Buffy blinked. Glory didn't know who Ben was? What did that mean? Maybe he went by a different name here?

Glory threw herself bodily at Buffy, making one last attempt before her strength was completely depleted. Had she been at full power Buffy had no doubt the move would have left her at a disadvantage. As it was she merely grabbed Glory's arms and forced her back to the ground. Her body had begun to shift forms before her back hit the floor.

But not into Ben.

Instead of growing into an adult man she got smaller, her limbs shrinking, becoming younger looking until Buffy was left staring at a coltish-looking boy of perhaps ten years of age.

Buffy gasped and fell backwards onto her butt in a distinctly ungraceful way. Where was Ben? Where was the adult man who had risked his life to protect Dawn? She knew Ben wasn't perfect, Hell, after getting Dawn _out_ of the vipers nest he'd then turned around and dragged her back in, but she'd been counting on him being the person he had been before that, on being old enough to not only understand what they had to do, but to accept it as well. She couldn't murder an innocent child.

The boy was trying to sit up, wincing at the injuries he didn't remember getting. He looked up at Buffy with wide eyes and Buffy felt her heart clench. She was going to be sick.

"Hello," he whispered."

Buffy just stared at him. She couldn't answer. She couldn't tell him that he would have to die to keep everyone else safe. Glory couldn't be allowed to live. She'd come back and go on a killing spree the likes of which the world had never seen. That wasn't to mention the brains of all those people she would have to eat to maintain her own tenuous grip on reality. And then, twenty nine years from today she would try again to bring down the walls between dimensions and next ti me they would be older, if they were even still alive then, while Glory was every bit a strong as she was now. She couldn't tell this child that he was one life, weighed against hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions. That he was to be a sacrifice.

A tear slipped down her cheek as the boy continued to gaze up at her, not knowing the dark thoughts running through her head.

"Oh, God, I can't..." Buffy pushed herself to her feet, ignoring her trembling limbs and ran from the room as fast as she possibly could.

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Angel watched her go. He understood how she felt. He felt much the same, but they couldn't just let Glory go. It was just that the boy was so tiny, so innocent and trusting. No wonder Buffy hadn't been able to do it. He was glad she couldn't. But now it fell to him and he wasn't sure he could manage it either.

He knelt next to the kid and helped him sit up. He shrugged his jacket off and placed it around the boy's shoulders, covering the torn and ill-fitting dress he was still wearing. Around them the others were backing away, distancing themselves from the situation. That was good. They were all decent people and no matter what they would be tainted by this. The more distance the easier they would find it to sleep at night.

Willow was the only one not backing away. Or rather, the two Willow's sharing a body. Her eyes were closed and a look of concentration spread across her features.

Angel returned his attention to the boy before him. "What's your name, kid?"

"Alex," the boy whispered. He was biting his lip hard enough to draw blood, steeling himself against the pain of wounds Glory had shrugged off. Left to himself those wounds might kill the boy without assistance.

"Alex," Willow said softly. She opened her eyes and turned to the boy. "I have a friend called Alex, well, actually we call him Xander."

Alex tried to smile at her, but failed miserably. "Xander," he repeated thoughtfully. "That's cool."

"Xander's a pretty cool guy," Willow grinned. "Alex, do you know about Glory?"

"She's my sister," Alex admitted. "I don't like her much." He ducked his head, shyly.

"That's alright, we're not too fond of her either," Angel confessed. "The thing is we can't stop her hurting people unless we..."

"That can wait," Willow interrupted.

"It's got to be done," Angel argued. "If Buffy can't do it, then I will."

"Are we sure there's no other way?" Wade said brokenly. Angel didn't have to see her face to know she was crying.

"There isn't," Angel snapped. He felt bad enough about all this. Why were they making it harder?

"What if there was?" Willow said, with equal ire. "We can't kill this child without at least trying to find another way." Unnoticed, the child in question paled in sudden fright.

"We already know there isn't any," Arturo said gently. "Perhaps we should just... get it over with."

"Professor!" Quinn exclaimed. "We're talking about the life of a human child. How can you say that?"

"I find this situation as distasteful as you do, Mr Mallory," said Arturo. "Yet we already know there is no alternative. We cannot waste time belabouring the point while Glory regains her strength. Need I remind you that we are now stuck here, and if she does return she will want revenge."

"I think that's better than murdering some poor kid," Rembrandt said heatedly. "I'm sorry. I can't have any part of this. If any of you try to hurt him, I'll stop you."

It was an empty threat, when made to a vampire of Angel's strength. Angel found himself silently hoping someone could stop this, because he was about to kill an innocent without the excuse of having no soul.

He reached for Buffy's discarded knife. Make it quick, he thought. It would be putting the child out of his misery at this point anyway. He clenched it tightly in his fist and turned to look at Alex.

His face was tear-stained. He looked like he'd tried to stand, but didn't have the energy and now he lay gasping on the floor, ignored while the adults around him debated ending his life. They should have been comforting him during his last moments, not terrorising him.

"Toth!" Dawn yelled.

Angel almost dropped the knife in shock.

"Wait!" she said excitedly. "If I'm right you won't have to kill him. Someone get Buffy." No one moved. "Now! And Angel you better put that knife away, right this instant."

Angel couldn't help his smirk. He liked this girl's attitude, so much like her sister's. He placed the knife on the floor, still within reach, praying she had found another way.

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"Not what we expected, huh?" Quinn said quietly, sitting beside her on the ledge overlooking the town.

"Nope," Buffy agreed, refusing to look at him.

"Could you have really done it, even if he was Ben?"

"I killed Angel to save the world and I was in love with him," Buffy pointed out. "I would have killed Ben to protect Dawn and stop Glory using the timer twenty-nine years from now to end the world."

"If it makes any difference, I'm glad you couldn't do it," Quinn smiled wryly. "It makes you more human."

"He's just a little kid," Buffy sighed. "He's younger than Dawn. There was no way I could..."

"His name's Alex," Quinn said softly.

"Alex," she echoed. "What are we gonna do? Now we're stuck here forever and if we can't kill... Alex... then Glory will come back and she'll destroy everything. Twenty nine years from now we might all be dead, it might not be possible to stop her then."

"Dawn seems to think there's a way around it."

Buffy looked up sharply.

"She said the word, 'Toth.' I don't know if that means anything to you, but..." he trailed off when he saw Buffy's eyes widen in amazement.

"How come we never thought of that?" she demanded, pushing herself up heading back inside. Quinn had to almost run to keep up with her.

When she burst back into the throne room she went straight to Dawn who was smugly standing in the middle of a group of very impatient people. Only Willow seemed to have any idea what was going on. Wade was crouched next to Alex, cleaning his wounds and talking to him softly.

Buffy hugged her sister tightly. "Have I ever told you that you are _amazing_?"

"Not lately," Dawn grinned. "It just came to me. Willow mentioned Xander and that got me to thinking. Will it work?"

"I think I can make it happen, but I'll have to get back home first," Willow said thoughtfully. "I know where my research for that spell is, so it shouldn't take too long."

"Would anyone care to enlighten the rest of us poor souls who have no idea what you are talking about?" Arturo snapped.

"A few years ago, there was this demon named Toth who tried to kill me," Buffy explained. "Only he didn't go for the direct approach, he used a spell."

"The spell was designed to split Buffy in two," Willow continued. "The Slayer part of her and the normal girl part. Then Toth could have killed normal Buffy and Slayer Buffy would die too. Only it missed Buffy and hit Xander, leaving us with two versions of him instead..."

"And they tried to kill each other," Dawn grinned. "Most people would eventually be killed by the process itself, but I'm thinking Glory and Alex aren't meant to be one person so the spell will just allow each of them to live in a separate body. No side effects!"

"Which is great for Alex and all," Rembrandt said slowly. "But won't that leave us with an essentially immortal Goddess? This spell will take away her only weakness."

"I think I have a solution to that one, as well," Willow said confidently. "I don't want to say anything yet, in case I'm wrong, but if this works... I don't think Glory will get her strength back for a few hours. Wait for me." Willow's body slumped as the spirit possessing it vanished.

"That was informative," Oz said wryly. He went to Willow and propped her up against his side.

"Let's just do as she says. We can take turns watching Alex, just in case." Wade said, gently stroking the boys hair back. "Meanwhile, we should get some rest."

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A/N: Sorry for another long wait. Should hopefully be the last one now as the story is pretty much finished with one extra chapter than planned, making it a total of fourteen. This would've been up last sunday, but after posting this on Yahoo! I got a bit worried the demon's name was wrong and wanted to check and while I was at it I needed to watch something in season two as well for chapter thirteen but then I couldn't find my DVD's. I found the one with Toth so I know that's right, but I had to resort to reading online transcripts for the next chapter. Oh well.

Well anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to review!

Nat.


	13. The Goddess

Chapter 13.

Angel stretched his aching arms, thinking longingly of his bed. He'd barely slept the day before, what with planning and everything and the certain knowledge that Buffy would soon be leaving forever.

He needn't have worried. Now she was trapped here forever and even though he knew how desperate she was to get home there was a large part of him that was made very happy at the prospect of her staying.

And that was why he should stay far away from her. If just her presence alone made him that happy how would he feel later on, when they became good friends, when he could no longer stop himself from taking her in his arms and never letting go? He couldn't allow himself to succumb to that happiness or his soul would be forfeit.

She was resting right now, while he took watch. It was unlikely Glory would awaken after the beating Buffy had given her, but they weren't taking any chances and so one super powered person would be present at all times. Had Amanda been in fighting shape she would have taken a turn too, but the sun had risen so she would be at the hospital by now. Poor girl would have stayed with her parents until dawn before heading to get her leg looked at. No hospital admitted patients during the night shift.

A movement by the door startled him and he turned to see a somewhat ruffled Buffy walking in, yawning hugely. Dawn was right behind her, staring ahead with a zombie-like expression. Angel wondered if she was sleep walking.

"Your turn to get some rest," Buffy murmured, dropping down next to him on the couch they had dragged in from another room.

"You sure," Angel said solicitously. "I can wait up a little longer if you want some more sleep."

"Nah," Buffy said, absently waving him away. "I don't need all that much sleep. There are some bedrooms along this corridor. They all have pretty heavy curtains so you should be alright."

Angel nodded his thanks before leaving her alone with Alex. He lingered by the door only long enough to watch Dawn rest her head in Buffy's lap, probably hoping to catch a few more hours of sleep.

He discounted the first two rooms he looked into for reasons he wasn't sure of until he looked into the third room. The moment he opened the door he could smell her scent on one of the beds and he inhaled deeply, relishing it. The curtains were already drawn tightly, protecting him from the sun as he stripped off his outer clothes and climbed into bed.

_This time when he dreamt of the faces emerging from the darkness names floated into his mind. Cordelia was prominent among them , a beautiful young woman, though he didn't know where he knew her from. Gunn, a black man with a determined glint in his eye; Doyle, whose plain face suddenly changed into that of a demon; Wesley, a middle-aged man who raised mixed feelings of irritation and affection in him; Fred, a young woman for whom he felt very fond and yet when her hair and some of her skin turned blue that feeling was replaced with great sadness, and Lorne, a green faced demon with red horns. Angel knew that despite the disparity of these faces they were all good people. It was the last face that worried him: Spike._

_Spike had always annoyed him at the best of times and provoked him into fits of rage at the worst. Drusilla's childe had been a selfish, egotistical man from the moment of his turning and never shown any other side of himself right up until Angel tracked him down and drove a stake in his heart. That he was counted among these faces of... friends was disconcerting to say the least._

"_He didn't get off to a good start," said a voice in wry amusement. "But then, neither did we."_

_Angel spun around to find he was staring into his own face. "What...?"_

"_This is a dream," the other Angel assured him. "I'm not real, at least... not anymore."_

"_Who are you?" Angel demanded._

"_I was you, these people were my life, but then I died." Other Angel cleared his throat. "They died too. Every last one of them gave their lives fighting the good fight."  
_

"_Even Spike?" Angel asked incredulously._

"_Spike and I seem to share similar tastes, much as I hate to admit it," other Angel laughed. "We were both champions with a soul and we both fell in love with the same amazing girl."_

"_Buffy," Angel deduced. "You're the version of me that lived on her world."_

"_That's right."_

_An image coalesced in the darkness and both Angel's turned to look. It was them, or another version of them, standing almost drunkenly, looking down at a young Buffy Summers with such love in his eyes. And such confusion. Behind him was a statue and from it's mouth came a portal much like the one he'd seen emerge from the slider's timing device, only this one was yellow not blue._

_The two figures kissed passionately before Buffy pulled away, tears in her eyes and so much pain Angel yearned to reach out and comfort her, but his other self held him back._

"_When I lost my soul, I tried to end the world," other Angel said in an emotionless voice. "Only Buffy had the power to stop me. Do you recognise the statue?"_

"_Acathla," Angel guessed._

"_The demon drew breath and everything living on the planet would be sucked into Hell," other Angel said slowly. "As Angelus I removed the sword binding Acathla and the process began. At that point the only thing that could save the world was my death. What Buffy didn't count on was Willow performing the curse and restoring my soul."_

"_She told me about this," Angel said curtly, trying to turn away._

"_You should still see it," said other Angel._

"_I love you," Buffy whispered._

"_I love you," image Angel whispered back. Gently, oh so gently, she touched his lips with her fingers._

"_Close your eyes." Angel didn't miss how her voice caught as she said it, or the way her eyes welled up as she kissed him one final time. It was more chaste this time, a goodbye kiss._

_And she stepped back and used all her strength to ram the sword through the images stomach._

"_She saved the world, at such a cost to herself," other Angel murmured as the images faded. "She gave up everything, just to keep the world turning. No one ever thanked her for it and for months afterwards she was completely alone with nothing to comfort her but her dreams. And that wasn't even the first time."_

_Angel stood transfixed as Buffy walked through sewers wearing a beautiful white dress, following a small child. He could hear Giles' voice echoing in his ears, repeating the words of the prophecy over and over. "The Master will rise and the Slayer will die." Despite knowing that she must have survived this encounter or they never would have met he still cried out with tears running down his cheeks when the Master bit her and dropped her into a pool of water._

_Then she was older and standing on a rickety tower, telling Dawn she loved her before turning and diving into a vortex._

_He'd heard some of Buffy's stories over the last few days, but watching them, especially these, was so much worse. Had she really died twice? Why hadn't she told him?_

"_She's really something isn't she? Time and time again she sacrificed everything to do what was right. Now it's our turn to give something back."_

"_I don't know what you mean?" Angel said, bitterly wiping the tears from his cheeks._

"_It's not just the fighting either," other Angel said as if he hadn't spoken. "She has a beautiful soul. She shines in the darkness like the brightest star. She had enough warmth in her heart to warm me when I was cold and alone. She taught me to fight and gave me something worth fighting for._

"_I was an idiot. I walked away from her. I wanted her to be happy and I thought she never could be with me, but despite all the pain I caused her, I was what made her happy. By leaving I only added to her heartache." Other Angel cleared his throat, still watching the place where Buffy's image had faded moments before. "I wasted my chance with her. Don't make the same mistakes I made. Hold on and never let go."_

"_I guess I'll have my chance. She's stuck here now." Angel tried not to let himself be happy about that, but he couldn't help it. She may never get home, but now she would be here, with him, forever._

"_Plans are in motion", other Angel said cryptically. "At this point nothing is certain, but there may be a way for her to get home." Finally he turned to face Angel. "She doesn't have to go alone."_

"_You want me to go with her, to give up everything I have here?"_

"_What do you have worth staying for?"_

_Angel found he couldn't answer that. True he had friends here, but there was a distance between them, because of what he was that prevented any of them from being truly close to him. Anything else he had was worthless. Leaving would be all too easy._

"_Look, I'll make it simple," offered other Angel. "How do you feel about her?"_

_The answer _was_ frighteningly simple. He'd avoided admitting it to himself before now, but his feelings were overwhelmingly obvious. "I love her like I've never loved anyone before."_

"_Then isn't that enough?"_

_Angel almost agreed. It should be enough, but there was still one question left unanswered._

"_Why are you doing all this? What's the point?"_

_Other Angel sighed. "I love her too. I loved her first. Two hundred and fifty years and I never loved anyone else. Heart, body and soul. Especially soul. She's my soul-mate."_

"_Then why are you giving her up?"_

"_It's too late for me." Angel could hear the sadness in his counterpart's voice. "I've lost my chance. _You_ haven't. Don't waste it. There are other reasons too. Some I can't tell you, but you'll find out if you make the right choice. What I _can_ tell you is that the Powers are behind all this. The prophecy that brought them here, the sliders being in the right place at the right time, that was them."_

"_Why?" Angel demanded, aghast. "Why play with so many lives, just to get them here?"_

"_This world needed saving," other Angel shrugged. "And Buffy was the best person to do that. Now the Slayer lives again and soon Willow will activate all the potentials and this world can begin to heal. Buffy can't stay here, her own world needs her too much, but someone is coming who can help them get started. She'll keep them on the right path. _

"_Then there's Buffy herself. After I died she was hurting, blaming herself. She needed to get away from all the distractions of her world to begin her own healing process. She's given up too much and now the Powers are giving something back. As long as you agree."_

"_I agree." And he did. Really there was no choice here, he couldn't bear the thought of being left behind and if the Powers were the ones instigating this then surely they would have taken his curse into account._

"_You're in for a ride," other Angel said with a smirk. "She'll challenge you, every step you take, but she's worth it." He hesitated. "Tell her I love her, tell her I don't blame her. I never did. I did what I had to do, so did she."_

"_Alright."_

_The dream started to fade, the darkness around them sweeping over them, obscuring the other Angel's face._

"_Take care of her for me," were the last words Angel heard._

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Guard duty was dull. Boring. Tedious. Mind-numbing. As she sat there in the oppressive silence, watching Alex and Dawn sleep Buffy could do nothing but try to think of as many words for bored as she could.

"I always liked humdrum."

She leapt up with a startled "eep!" dislodging Dawn's head from her lap and in the process waking Alex who sat up in bleary eyed confusion.

"Oops, sorry," Willow said, giggling a little at the commotion she had caused.

"Will, you'd better have a good explanation for that," Dawn said grumpily as she picked herself up from the floor.

"I said I was sorry," Willow shrugged. "I thought Buffy would have heard me come in."

"You're non-corporeal," Buffy pointed out. "You don't make sounds when you walk and you don't even need to open doors."

"Guess I didn't think of that," Willow said idly. "Hey, Dawn, now that you're awake, how about you get the others in here. I've got some good news."

With one last scowl in Willow's direction Dawn set off to wake the others.

Buffy stepped closer to Alex. "How're you feeling?"

"Better," the boy mumbled. "Some of these cuts still hurt."

"I'll try healing them again later," Willow said softly. "It'll have to wait until I'm merged with the other me though. And until Glory's gone. Wouldn't want to risk waking her up by healing her. Sorry."

"You're going to have to do that again?" Buffy asked worriedly.

"I'll need to if I'm gonna activate the Slayers," Willow said grimly.

The others started filing in, most of them wearily rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Surprisingly the Professor seemed least bothered by the early wake up call, while Wade was struggling to stay awake.

Once they were all assembled Willow cleared her throat. "First things first. I've looked into the spell Toth used and it is possible to use it in this case and I'm pretty sure there won't be the side effects we dealt with when this was used on Xander. The problem is what do we do with Glory then?"

"We're effectively removing her only weakness," Quinn surmised. "I want to help Alex as much as the next person, but will we be able to handle her once she's free?"

"She won't be as strong this way as she would if she woke up on her own," Willow pointed out. "She turned into Alex because she didn't have the strength to keep him down anymore, which is all the more reason to do this as soon as possible. If she were to come back on her own it'll be because she's back at full strength."

"How did you finish her off last time?" Rembrandt asked quietly.

Buffy shrugged. "I beat the crap out of her, then she turned into Ben. It was Giles that actually killed him."

"And then Buffy climbed to the top of the tower and jumped in the big swirly portal so that the universes didn't bleed into each other," Dawn muttered.

"Excuse me?" Angel snapped, a surprising amount of emotion in his voice.

"That's how she closed it," Dawn said, bristling at his tone.

"That would have killed her," Angel said gruffly, his eyes darting between Buffy and Dawn as if searching desperately for something.

"Willow brought me back with a spell," Buffy said quickly, trying to shrug it off.

"It's not like that was even the first time," Dawn said, glaring at Angel. "She walked into the Master's lair after hearing a prophecy about how he would kill her and she drowned."

"And Xander brought me back _that_ time," Buffy put in. "Is this really relevant?"

A quick glance around showed her that while it may not be pertinent to their discussion the revelation had shocked more than a few of her companions. Angel in particular was lost in thought, his expression unreadable.

"I think I have another solution that doesn't involve anyone dying," Willow said, bringing everyone's attention back to the task at hand. "Yesterday, when your vortex opened up, I could sense it. I may not understand all the science of it, but I'm pretty sure I can recreate it using magic. We could send her home. Let her brothers deal with her."

"Can you send us home the same way?" Wade asked excitedly.

Willow frowned. "It's possible, but I don't want you to get your hopes up. Once I've activated the spell I'm going to need a mix of Dawn and Glory's blood to make sure it ends up where I want it to. Dawn's will give me control while Glory's provides the destination. As a Hell Goddess she's far more linked with her home world than any human, at least that's what I'm hoping. While the same thing may work for you, there's a lot more risk involved and you've travelled to so many parallel worlds... We might be able to increase your chances if we use your timer."

"But the timer won't work for the next twenty nine years. We can't wait that long," Rembrandt objected.

"But from what I understand if you were to get to another world the timer would automatically search for the next window," Willow pointed out.

Quinn eyed her thoughtfully. "Theoretically. We've never tested that."

"At least it gives you another option," Willow said. "You can try it from our world."

"We can get home," Dawn said happily.

"Wait, won't there be the same risk there as there is for getting the sliders home?" Buffy asked worriedly. "I might be a Slayer, but I'm still no Goddess."

"No, don't you see it?" Willow grinned. "My corporeal body is on our world. All I have to do is make the vortex come to me."

Buffy gaped at her. "You can really do all this?"

Willow nodded, still grinning happily.

"I told you," Buffy almost yelled in jubilation, turning to a startled Quinn. "Didn't I? I told you that there was nothing you could do with science that Willow couldn't do with magic!" She turned and pulled Dawn into her arms. "We're going home, Dawnie."

"I know," Dawn replied, returning the embrace enthusiastically. "Will, I'd hug you too if you were corporeal."

"So hug other me," Willow shrugged.

"OK," Dawn said, bouncing over to the surprised Willow and hugging her too.

Arturo clapped his hands together. "So when do we start."

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The two Willow's, once again sharing a body, slumped over the scythe. "It's done," she breathed, exhausted.

"I can't believe that was so simple," Wade said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Hardly simple," Willow groaned, standing up slowly. "Takes a lot of concentration to pull that one off." She glanced over Wade's shoulder at the stick she'd been working on. "How's that coming?"

"Oh," Wade jumped and turned back to her work. "I'm almost finished. I just need to add the starfish scales and then you can say the magic words."

"Great," said Willow. "While you're doing that, I need a word with Buffy."

Buffy frowned, but followed her friend to a secluded corner. "What's up?"

"I think the spell had a side effect," Willow whispered frantically.

"What?" Buffy demanded. "Is it the baby-Slayers? They'll all be called, right?"

"No, it's not them," Willow said quickly. "It's me. Or rather, it's the other me. I think something happened to her as we finished the spell."

Buffy glanced over to where Oz was watching Alex. "Are you sure? What exactly happened?"

"I... Do you remember when I cursed Angel? It was the first major spell I'd ever done and it was a huge one and as I finished... I felt something go through me, awakening the power within. No matter what spells I've performed since, no matter how powerful – even when I activated the Potentials back home – I've never felt anything quite like that first time."

Buffy stared at her in consternation. "What are you saying? That you awakened that same power within your double?"

"I knew straight away she had the power, but it was locked away." Willow gulped. "I think I just unlocked it."

"Oh my God," Buffy whispered.

"What do I do?" Willow asked desperately.

"You're gonna have to tell Oz at least, he deserves to know. Giles too, he's probably the only one here that can help her deal with this."

Willow nodded. "You're right. OK. Will you come with me?"

Buffy smiled. "Sure." As she went to move away Willow caught her arm.

"There's one other thing. Faith."

"What about her?" Buffy asked cautiously.

"I'm worried, Buff. She's seriously depressed. I've never seen her like this. Angel died and you know how close they were, then she lost her entire team, not to mention Robin and he was her first love. I think the shock's worn off now, and it's like there's nobody home."

Buffy sighed. "All we can do is give her time and hope she comes to us when she's ready. You know what she's like, if we try to help her before she's ready she's likely to do something stupid."

"And violent," Willow added.

"Why are you telling me this now?" Buffy asked slightly suspiciously. "Couldn't it wait until we got back?"

"I, um... I just wanted you to be prepared," Willow said, looking away nervously. "Let's go see Giles."

Buffy was almost certain her best friend was hiding something, but as the redhead bounced off in search of Giles she decided to let it rest. For now.

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Quinn watched apathetically as Wade finished whatever it was she was doing to the stick. When Willow had asked for a volunteer to help her with some spell preparation Wade had jumped at the chance.

"I think I'm done," she said, eyeing the stick critically.

Automatically Quinn's eyes sought out Buffy and Willow. He found them talking animatedly with Mr Giles who had a worried expression on his face; and Oz who was nothing short of furious. It was probably the first time Quinn had seen the young man display any sort of emotion and that had him a little concerned. Had something happened?

As Quinn watched Willow laid a hand on Oz's arm in comfort, talking to him softly. Buffy turned around and walked towards them. He sat up straighter and tried to look like he was genuinely absorbed in Wade's task.

"So it's finished?" he said quickly, searching for anything to get a conversation started before Buffy got there. "What exactly is it supposed to do?"

Wade brightened. "It's that spell Dawn was talking about last night. This is sort of the focus of the spell, like a magic wand. Willow holds it, points it at Alex and says the magic words."

"Willow won't be able to," Buffy informed them as she reached them. "She'll need to focus on getting the portal open to send Glory through, so Dawn's gonna do it." She didn't seem too pleased about that fact.

"What's wrong?" Quinn asked her.

Buffy let out a long sigh. "Dawn thinks she's grown up and she can handle it, but I've seen what dabbling in magic has done to Willow over the years and I worry."

Quinn rested one arm around her shoulders. "I may not know Dawn very well, but from what I've seen she's a strong and determined young woman."

"And I should trust her and support her, right?" Buffy said tersely. "Xander's been telling me that for over a year now, but I find it hard to let go. I guess this is how mom felt when she found out about me being the Slayer. I feel like I'm the grown-up and I should know best, but she's almost eighteen. Old enough to make her own decisions."

"Sounds like you've been listening to Xander after all," Quinn commented.

"Yeah, but don't tell him that," Buffy grinned. "You know, the first thing I'm gonna do when I get home is give that goofball a big hug."

"Sounds like a plan," said Quinn, laughing.

"OK, people," Willow called. "I'm ready. Dawn, I need some of your blood."

"'Kay," Dawn said, immediately grabbing a knife and slicing her hand open. Beside Quinn Buffy flinched as though it were her own hand being cut open.

As Willow collected the blood into a small stone bowl she continued to give out orders. "Right, Giles and Jenny, I need you guys with me. Got the words memorised." The two nodded."Great. Dawn get the stick. You know what you've gotta do?"

"Affirmative boss," Dawn said marching over to Wade and taking up the stick. She showed it to Willow who muttered a few words over it, causing it to glow briefly.

"Larry, take this," Willow handed the bowl of blood to the young man. "Buffy, get the scythe, it's probably the only thing capable of cutting Glory. Larry when Buffy makes the cut you collect the blood and bring it straight to me. Angel, you'll then need to help Buffy get Glory through the portal, I expect you'll have to use force."

"Yes Ma'am!" Buffy said smartly with a mock salute.

Willow pouted briefly. "The rest of you should probably just get out of the way."

As Jenny and Giles took up positions on either side of Willow Buffy stepped towards Angel and they both sat next to Alex who was looking more than a little nervous. Larry hovered nearby, the bowl with Dawn's blood in his hands, while everyone else backed away.

"It's OK," Quinn heard Buffy say as she took Alex's hand. "It'll just take a moment and then you'll be free of Glory forever."

Alex looked at her confident smile and nodded resolutely.

Quinn watched as Willow chanted a string of Latin, stumbling slightly over some of the longer words. Jenny was saying the same words in English while Giles spoke in a language Quinn didn't recognise, but knew from earlier discussions to be Sumerian. A pinprick of blue light appeared before them, growing larger until it seemed to be swirling, eventually growing into the vortex Quinn knew from years of sliding.

"Dawn now," Willow yelled, much of her voice being snatched away by the vortex.

Dawn squared her shoulders and pointed her magic wand at Alex who gulped. "_Factas duos_."

A beam of light shot out from the end of the stick, striking Alex in the chest and knocking him off the back of the chair he was sitting on. Angel and Buffy scrambled after him, the scythe clenched in Buffy's hand.

Quinn edged around so he had a better view of what was happening, just in time to see Angel holding a surprised and rather disoriented Glory's hand out as Buffy ran the sharp edge of the scythe across it. Larry darted in with the bowl and Angel turned the hand over, squeezing slightly so the blood ran free.

As soon as there was enough in the bowl Larry stood and ran to Willow who took it and again started chanting over the bowl.

Meanwhile Glory had recovered some of her wits as Angel and Buffy hauled her to her feet. She stared down at Alex in bewilderment as he looked back with defiance in his eyes.

"Alex, come here," Wade called, holding a hand out to the boy.

Alex shifted his gaze to her and pushed himself up, running from the line of fire.

"Let go of me," Glory growled, struggling against her captors, her gaze darting between Alex and the vortex in dismay.

Buffy threw Glory away from herself and in the direction of the vortex. "Look," she hissed. "We both know that after the beating you took last night you don't have the strength to resist us for long and eventually we _will _win and you _will_ go through the portal. Or you could make it easier on yourself and go through willingly."

"Why should I?" Glory snarled. "I am a God. I refuse to be beaten by _humans_."

"Turn around," Buffy said, grabbing Glory once more and twisting her to face Willow and the vortex. "That's your ticket home."

Willow scattered the mixed blood on the edge of the vortex. As it turned green, the colour Quinn now knew meant the key was manipulating it, Glory's eyes widened in disbelief.

"All you ever wanted was to go home," Buffy told her quietly. "We're making all your dreams come true, but you only have a little bit of time before you lose this opportunity and you may never get another one."

"All it would take to kill you is a few words and you and Alex are one again," Willow told her. "Then we can kill you both in one stroke. Or you can take this chance." Quinn squeezed the boy's shoulder, hoping to let him know that would never happen.

Glory turned to look at Alex. "So that's what you look like," she said and Quinn wondered if that was actual affection he heard in her tone. "Look, kid, you and I have shared a body so if you tell me this is for real..."

"It is," Alex said bluntly. "They said they would send you home and let your other brothers deal with you."

Glory snorted. "Even as weak as I am right now they couldn't take me." She turned to glare at Buffy. "Fine, I'm going, but I swear if you're sending me to some other random dimension I will find you and kill you and everyone you love."

"Yeah, yeah, heard it all before," Buffy shrugged. "Get on with it."

Glory pushed her away and walked directly to the vortex. "Take care of yourself, Rugrat," she called over her shoulder before leaping into the blue. She was gone.

Willow sagged as the vortex closed. For a long while all they could do was stare at the empty space that was left.

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	14. The Homecoming

Chapter 14.

As the portal blinked out of existence they all continued to stare at the spot from which Glory had just disappeared.

"She's gone," Dawn said at last, breaking the silence.

"Yeah." Buffy wrapped an arm around her sister's shoulders. "And now we can go home."

"I need a minute to catch my breath before I try that again," Willow said tiredly.

"Take as long as you want," Buffy said reassuringly. "There's no rush."

"Actually there is," Willow reminded her. "The longer it takes to get you home the more Slayers we lose. The demons have started catching on now. It won't be long before there's a massacre."

Buffy nodded. "How many Slayers are left?"

"Less than a hundred," Willow guessed. "We think it happened the moment you missed the slide window. The amount of Slayers we lose per hour has doubled. By the end of the day the only Slayer we'll have left is Faith."

"And from what you've told me she's in no shape for slaying," Buffy grimaced. "OK, take five minutes and we'll try again. Is that enough?"

"It has to be," Willow said grimly.

"Can I have a word," Angel asked Buffy softly, nodding his head towards the corridor.

"You have five minutes," Buffy said chirpily and followed him out the door.

Quinn turned his attention to Alex who had remained remarkably still since Glory had left. "You OK?"

Alex nodded mutely.

"Wanna talk about it?" Wade asked him gently, kneeling down so she was looking him in the eye.

"She's really gone?" Alex whispered uncertainly. "Forever?"

"Yeah," Wade grinned. "Without a timer she's stuck wherever she ended up."

"Do you think she got home?"

"Oh yeah," Willow said with certainty. "Glory's blood is powerful and she has a strong connection to her home-world – enough that she could have picked it out even when all the walls between dimensions were falling down. I'm positive she got back."

"Oh," Alex sighed. "What happens to me now?"

The minute the words left Alex's lips Quinn realised not one of them had ever asked Alex about his family other than Glory. While there had been other, arguably more important things going on at the time he was appalled that they hadn't found the time to reassure Alex that he would be returned home once Glory was gone.

"Mr Giles will make sure you get to your parents," he said at last, making eye contact with the librarian who nodded firmly.

"I don't have parents," said Alex in a small voice. "They died when I was a baby. It's always just been me and Glory. When I was awake her minions took care of me. I doubt they'd want to now I'm just me."

Not to mention the fact that there was only one left alive as far as they knew.

Jenny knelt down beside him. "We could take you in," she offered, smiling warmly. "Rupert and I don't have children of our own, though we do have some very close family," she smiled around at Daniel, Larry and Willow. "We could never replace your parents, but we would love to have you."

"Oh," Mr Giles said in surprise. "Yes... yes that would be wonderful."

Alex smiled shyly. "If you're sure you want me."

"Oh we do, sweetheart, we do," Jenny said emphatically, holding her arms open.

Alex flung himself into them, sobbing.

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Confused and slightly concerned, Buffy followed Angel down the corridor and into the bedroom she had slept in the night before. Angel's expression was grim as he gestured for her to sit on one of the beds. He wandered over to the mirror affixed to the wall and stared into it. She couldn't stop her eyes from flickering towards it, noting his lack of reflection. Instead her own face was framed within it until she guiltily looked away.

Neither spoke for a few minutes. Buffy studied the bedspread, growing more concerned by the second until she could stand it no longer.

"Angel, what is it? You're starting to scare me."

He turned haunted eyes towards her. "Did you ever stand with my double on a hilltop, just before sunrise?"

"What?" Buffy's eyebrows lowered in confusion. Where did that come from?

"He wanted to kill himself. He was going to watch the sunrise, but you came and talked to him. Actually yelled at him. Told him that you wouldn't watch him die again. Then the snow came."

Buffy could only shake her head in disbelief. "How can you know that?" Her voice shook as she spoke, the memory coming back to her in full force. It was when she came across the Bringers and the First back when she was still in High School. Angel had tried to kill himself to keep her safe, because he didn't think he could keep himself away from the temptation she represented to him.

"I dreamt it," Angel said hollowly.

"How...?" Buffy whispered.

"Do you remember I told you about my dreams?" he asked her. "My voice speaking out of the darkness? Well last night it all came together."

Buffy gaped at him as he described his dream. Angel – her Angel – had visited his double in a dream, just to pass on a message from the Powers that Be. She ignored the tears falling down her cheeks.

"When I woke up, I dismissed it," Angel said, not looking at her. "But then Dawn told us about when you jumped off the tower and when you faced the Master and it was such a close match to what I'd seen that I just had to know for certain."

Buffy swallowed around the lump in her throat. "And?"

"I love you," he blurted, finally meeting her eyes. "I've tried not to, but I can't. I know when you look at me you only see him, but I thought..."

"Ssh," Buffy said, laying a gentle hand across his lips. She stepped closer, looking up into his eyes before lifting her heels and kissing him for all she was worth. Her arms slipped around his neck as one of his hands fisted in her hair, the other dropping to her waist to pull her closer.

When she pulled away she was panting slightly while Angel just looked disappointed that it was over. Buffy smiled up at him. "I love you, too."

Angel smiled back at her, brushing the loose hair back from her cheek. "I can't lose you now."

"I can't stay here," Buffy reminded him.

"Then there's no reason for me to stay either."

Buffy grinned and as they were still so close she leaned up and kissed him once more.

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It was weird saying goodbye to Giles since she would see him again on the other side of the portal. Alex and Larry she barely knew so after a perfunctory farewell Buffy moved onto Oz and Jenny. Oz was as monosyllabic as ever and shook her hand briefly before turning to Wade. It was difficult sometimes to remember that while she and Oz had been good friends back on her world this version of Oz thought of her as a virtual stranger.

"So..." Buffy said finally, facing Jenny.

Jenny leaned over and hugged her. "Thank you," she whispered.

Buffy frowned as she pulled away. "For what?"

"You may not realise what an effect you've had on this world, but I do," Jenny told her. "Things were looking bleak here. The only warrior we had for our side was Angel and the military weren't getting 

anywhere. The demons stopped being scared so long ago. Then you came and now we have hope again. We have the Slayers to teach the demons how to fear again."

"Most of that was Willow," Buffy shrugged.

"Maybe she provided the magic, but you were the heart of the plan," Jenny argued. "It was you who retrieved the scythe from the cave and it was for you that Willow came here in the first place."

Buffy glanced over to where the scythe had been left leaning against a wall. "I keep thinking that I haven't done enough." She looked up into Jenny's questioning eyes. "You have a bit of time to find the Slayers before the Watcher's Council realises that something is up, but eventually they will find out and they'll try to take control of the situation. Amanda is going to be the leader as the only one with the experience or the training and she'll be the only one who can stop them. I don't know if she can. I haven't taught her enough."

"You've done all you can," said Jenny consolingly. "Don't beat yourself up over something you can't control. You have your own world to save. Let us worry about this one."

"I suppose you're right," Buffy conceded. "It's too late to do anything more. Still I think I'll always wonder about what will happen here." She studied Jenny's face, knowing that this was the last time she would ever see the woman. "Thank you for taking care of Giles all these years."

"It's been no problem," Jenny smiled and hugged her once more.

"I'm ready," Willow called as the two women broke apart.

Buffy went to stand by Angel who took her hand firmly in his. He'd been smiling an awful lot since he'd made the decision to go with Buffy and she liked the change on him. Despite her happiness at the situation she couldn't stop worrying about his curse and how long it would be before their relationship put his soul at risk.

"Once the vortex is open I'll leave this body and return to my own," Willow said loudly so everyone could hear. "Dawn, you'll need to throw in a few drops of your blood so I can manipulate the other end and pull it to me." Dawn nodded firmly. "Don't step through until the other end is in place or you could end up anywhere," Willow warned.

"How will we know when it's safe?" Wade demanded.

"I, um, you'll know," Willow said nervously, glancing at Buffy.

"Will, it's time to 'fess up," Buffy said, not liking the way her friend was avoiding the question.

Instead of answering Willow turned her back on them and started chanting the incantation to open the wormhole.

Buffy exchanged a concerned glance with Dawn, both of them knowing that it must be something they wouldn't like if Willow was refusing to answer.

Dawn removed the bandage she had placed around her hand which was still oozing blood as the vortex grew, waiting for the moment she would be needed.

Willow turned around to face Buffy. "I'll hold the vortex open as long as I can. Remember, wait until you get the signal before coming through."

Before Buffy could ask any more questions Willow fell to the floor. Her Willow had gone ahead, leaving her double behind. Dawn stepped over the prone form and scattered a few drops of her blood into the portal while Oz leapt to Willow's side.

"Did she tell anyone what the signal is?" Rembrandt asked as the vortex turned green.

"Nope," Wade said, frantically looking around at the other sliders. "How are we supposed to know when it's safe for us to go through?"

"She said she would keep the vortex open as long as she could," Quinn reminded them. "Why would we need it open for any great amount of time?"

Someone was screaming and it was coming from the depths of the vortex. Buffy took a few steps closer, just in case something demonic was coming through, but she had a nasty feeling that this was Willow's signal.

A figure landed at Buffy's feet. A dark haired female that immediately pushed herself up.

"Faith?" Dawn exclaimed.

"I shoulda known," Buffy said tonelessly.

"What can I say, B? There's nothing left for me back home. No Robin, no freedom." Faith glanced around at their spectators. "Those of you who are going should get moving," she suggested lightly before turning back to Buffy. "Eventually the police will find me and then I'll get locked up again and I'll be no good to anyone. From what Willow said this world could use my help. And I could use something to take my mind off Robin."

There wasn't time to argue. This must have been what Willow was keeping the portal open for, but she couldn't keep it there indefinitely. Besides, even if she had the time, Buffy had no idea how she could convince Faith she was making the wrong choice. She herself had debated staying here and having a fresh start and she had far more reasons to return than Faith did.

The sliders had already leaped through the portal before Dawn spoke. "Good luck, Faith," was all she said before sprinting and leaping into the vortex.

"We need to go," Angel said seriously.

"I..." There was so much she wanted to say right now, but she knew it would come out wrong. The two oldest Slayers had never been the best of friends. Saying she would miss Faith would be a lie. "Protect them," she said finally. "They'll need someone to lead them, someone who won't just take everything the Council says as gospel."

"I know," Faith agreed. "They need Buffy, but since you gotta go, I'll do my best."

Buffy shook her head. "They need you, Faith. I know we never got along, but I know you can do what's best for these girls. Goodbye Faith."

Faith surprised her then by stepping closer and embracing her. Buffy stiffened, surprised, but relaxed into it, holding her sister Slayer so tightly any other person would have broken a rib. "Bye B," Faith muttered in her ear. "Take care of our girls."

"I will," Buffy promised.

Angel took her hand and led her to the portal. Buffy glanced back once at her new friends and one who she should have gotten to know years ago, but would now never have the chance to and smiled. Faith was eyeing Larry up thoughtfully.

She jumped with Angel close behind her.

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Lauren stared listlessly out of the window. The normal window, looking out over the normal school grounds from her normal classroom where she sat, a normal girl. Yesterday she had been a Slayer. Yesterday she had been a warrior. Now she was normal again and she didn't want to go back to _normal_.

It had happened sometime during the night. She'd gone to bed after a night of Slaying – alone now with all her local sisters either losing their powers or ending up like Doaa... dead. When she'd awoken she'd noticed the change immediately. She was weak, un-coordinated and she threw like a _girl_.

The bell rang and she got up, not caring that she hadn't listened to a single word her teacher had spoken and barely aware of the strange looks she was getting. She did notice though and she knew why. Being a Slayer had made her stand out from the crowd, the confidence the power leant to a girl showed in her every step, the Slayer's grace had been evident every time she had moved, but now she had none of that, just herself. Maybe it was because she had lost her powers so suddenly that had thrown her into this state of shock, but she couldn't help wondering if 'just herself' was enough.

Her next class was Phys Ed and she wasn't looking forward to it. She'd been excelling in it since her activation and she wasn't going to enjoy the coming proof of just what she had lost, nor having to try and explain to everyone why she had lost so much of her stamina and speed.

They were doing track today and while she would have normally breezed past her classmates today she was lucky to come in the middle of the pack. At the other end she almost collapsed from the exertion, panting, with sweat running down her forehead in a way she hadn't felt in so long now.

Marnie, one of the school's top female runners merely bent at the waist, her hands on her knees and smirked over at Lauren. "What happened to you?"

"Bad day," Lauren said grudgingly. Marnie had been one of her rivals since they were young. Since being Called Marnie hadn't been able to touch her in any physical activity. She was probably going to love this.

"Looks like you're getting slow," Marnie said, that awful smirk still hovering about her lips. "Probably all that extra weight you're carrying around."

Lauren gaped at her. "Like you're one to talk. I've seen that flab you're calling a butt these days. Surprised you can even walk with that coming along behind you."

Marnie's eyes flickered as if she were resisting the urge to actually turn around and check she hadn't gained a few pounds and now it was Lauren's turn to smirk.

"Hmph," Marnie said with a toss of her hair.

The whistle blew and the girls lined up to run again. Lauren stood side by side with Marnie, determined to win, but knowing it was hopeless without her powers.

They took off and Lauren immediately started to fall behind. She urged her tired legs to carry her just a little bit faster, but to no avail.

Then she felt it. A rush went through her and her heart-rate slowed. She almost stumbled as her fastest speed suddenly increased and she found herself having to hold back not to reveal just how fast she could run. As she passed Marnie she grinned, not even breathing hard now.

She revelled in the power of the Slayer.

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Buffy hit the ground and rolled. A second later she felt Angel hit the ground beside her. She sat up, blinking in the sudden bright daylight after the darkness of Glory's house where Angel's presence had meant they had to keep all the windows covered...

Angel.

She turned and draped herself over him, screaming for someone to bring a blanket or anything to cover him with when she realised he wasn't even smoking.

She sat back, staring at him as he pushed himself onto his knees and stared right back at her as if he couldn't believe his eyes. Then he looked up, right at the sun, squinting.

"How...?" Buffy whispered, reaching a hand out to check he was real, not just an illusion, that the real Angel wasn't burning to ashes as she sat here.

"The other me, in my dream, he said there were reasons for my coming here that he couldn't tell me," Angel said, still gazing up at the sun. "Do you think this is it?" He patted down his chest, as if searching for flames.

Buffy leaned over and laid a hand over his heart, pulling it back immediately when she felt the telltale thump of a heartbeat. Their eyes met, Buffy's were brimming over with tears and she was sure Angel would be right behind her.

"What's going on?" Wade asked in confusion. "I thought vampires were killed by sunlight. That's why no one went out at night on the last world, right?"

Dawn knelt next to them and placed her own hand over Angel's heart. She frowned at what she felt. "I didn't think this was possible."

"You're human," Buffy choked out and threw herself into his arms.

He held her close, his chin resting on top of her head and she cried into his chest. If this was for real, if Angel was really human, then they wouldn't have anything to worry about. They could be together – really, finally together – without concern for his soul.

"Hey, guys."

Buffy looked up at the sound of that familiar voice and she almost burst into a fresh set of tears as she stood and flung herself at the approaching figure. "Xander," she cried.

He picked her up and swung her around. "You're home, Buff," he said into her hair. A moment later Dawn hit the pair of them and they stood there in that three way hug exalting in each other's presence.

"I take it you're Xander," Quinn said holding his hand out to the one-eyed man who had to juggle the two girls still clinging onto him before he could reciprocate.

"Whoa," said Xander, eyeing Angel suspiciously. "Dead boy. I thought you were... dead."

"He's from the parallel world we were on," Dawn explained.

"Must be some freaky deaky place," Xander noted, glancing from Angel to the cloudless sky above.

"That's a new development," Buffy said, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

"Yeah, well let's get you all inside."

"I thought we were supposed to appear wherever Willow was," Dawn said.

"You weren't far off, she's in that building over there," Xander said pointing. "When Faith jumped into the portal she lost her hold on it a bit, but she kept it rooted to this universe. I ran out here to be the welcoming committee."

"Do you have any idea how awful it was being on a world where you had died?" Buffy asked, nudging him with one elbow.

Xander shuddered. "How _did_ you cope?"

They entered the building, a block of flats and stepped into a lift. They got out on the top floor, a beautiful penthouse apartment overlooking the whole city.

"We're in San Francisco!" Wade exclaimed.

"The first time since Logan SinClaire messed with the timer," Rembrandt said enthusiastically.

"This is where we started," Arturo explained. "Well over two years ago now. Ah, Mr Giles, we meet again."

"Oh, I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure," Giles said standing to greet the newcomers but before he had taken two steps he was hit by hurricane Summers.

"Hey, I'm sorry you all got stranded outside, everyone OK?" Willow asked brightly.

"Angel had a bit of a fright," Dawn shrugged. "But he's come down with a case of human so he's alright."

"What?" Willow demanded, studying Angel. "Oh my God, Buffy, the Sanshu Prophecy."

"Ah, yes, the one that states that the vampire with a soul – a champion – would achieve humanity once the apocalypse was over," Giles agreed. "I have to admit the circumstances do fit. That particular apocalypse was dealt with by our Angel and his team in LA a few weeks ago and this Angel is a vampire with a soul."

"And a champion on his home world," Dawn put in.

"But Angel signed that away," Buffy protested.

"The Angel born on this world did," Willow said. "Not this Angel."

"So this is for real?" Buffy said in disbelief. "Really real?"

"I think so," Giles said. "I'll check my books, just to be absolutely certain."

"This is some place," Rembrandt said approvingly. "I guess the demon hunting biz really brings in the cash."

Buffy snorted. "About the only good thing the Watcher's Council ever did. They knew that something could happen to them so they left provisions for the current Slayer should they all die. If that were to happen she would inherit everything until such time as a new group could be formed. When the Council here was destroyed, I got it all and we formed our own group." She started as a sudden beep filled the air.

"Here we go," Quinn called, pulling the timer out.

"Already?" Buffy exclaimed as the portal opened, causing loose papers to flit across the room.

"Willow, is there anything you can do?" Wade asked desperately.

"Dawn," Willow called and the two approached the swirling vortex, Dawn allowing droplets of blood from the open wound on her hand to hit it.

After a few moments of chanting Willow cried out, "It's the best I can do. Good luck."

"Here goes nothing," Rembrandt said hopefully, running full tilt at the vortex.

"Farewell my dears," Arturo said bowing his head in Buffy's direction.

"Bye," Wade yelled as the two somersaulted into the green.

"Buffy, I... thanks," Quinn said sincerely. "You've really opened my eyes."

"Think nothing of it," Buffy called. "Now go, before you're stuck here forever."

He looked at her for one moment as if he were considering it, but then one glance at Angel and he shook his head sadly. "I'll miss you." He kissed her cheek gently and then he was gone.

"Do you think we'll ever see them again?" Dawn asked once the portal had closed.

"When we were on the other world I put a marker of your blood with a spell on their timer," Willow said smugly. "I left a similar marker for Faith to find. As your blood is unique to all the parallel worlds I'll be able to find them again."

Buffy smiled, looking up at Angel. It was hard to believe that so much had happened in eight days.

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The sliders landed in the middle of a quiet street, picking themselves up from yet another rough slide.

"Four minutes," Quinn said, looking around.

"Is this it? Are we home?" Wade asked.

"There's not enough time," Rembrandt fretted.

"Wait," Quinn said, his eyes catching a familiar sight. "I know this street." He took off running, leaving his companions to follow.

They stopped outside a house they all recognised.

"This is your house," Arturo noted.

"Yeah." Quinn darted to the gate. "This gate," he began.

"We know, squeaking since you were a kid, back of your hand, just hurry up, we're running out of time," Wade said.

Quinn took a deep breath and grasped the gate. With a final set to his shoulders he wrenched it open. The gate squeaked.

"Is that it?" Rembrandt asked.

"I, yes, it is," Quinn said, stunned.

"You've been wrong before," Arturo pointed out.

The front door opened and a large woman stepped out. "Can I help you?" she called.

Quinn stared at her in confusion. That wasn't his mother.

"Do you live here Madam?" Arturo asked politely.

"Yes, I do," the woman answered. "For ten years now."

"Oh," Wade's face fell. "Wrong place then."

"Sorry to have bothered you Madam," Arturo said with a half bow and the four of them walked away. As soon as they rounded a corner Quinn held out the timer and the familiar vortex appeared. He watched his friends disappear feeling more melancholy than he had expected. They had been so close and for one shining moment he had thought they were home.

"Maybe the next slide," he muttered and jumped.

THE END

A/N: Well there it is. The end. I hope you've all enjoyed it.

I haven't started it yet, but I have plans for another fic - a Harry Potter one this time. I'll probably start posting it sometime in the Autumn when my schedule starts to calm down again and I can spend more time writing. In the meantime don't forget to review and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.

Nat.


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